I feel insane whenever I watch a view askew movie cause it just gets so fucking gay all of a sudden then it's played off as normal

Top 10 Far Cry Songs

i wasn’t tagged to do this, but i saw @tomexraider‘s post and choices and it got me thinking and i wanted to make my list too!

i’m gonna totally cheat and break this down by the background score and the original soundtrack + licensed soundtrack songs, because having the pick just 10 out of all the FC music would be absolutely impossible for me. without further ado-

RULES: list your top ten songs from the Far Cry franchise and list your reasoning behind your picks.

score:

Far Cry 3 / Further (feat. Serena McKinney) - Brian Tyler (both of them) | Far Cry 3 (they’re nearly identical songs - one has a solo vocalist and the other has a violin solo - so i included them both. both so powerful: the first is at the start of the game and the second is played into the credits so they bookend the entire game for you. still give me chills)

Journey Into Madness - Brian Tyler | Far Cry 3 (the moment this one’s tied to - your first up close glimpse of Hoyt and the rush to get the information to save your buddy Oliver - is one of my favorites. So tense and urgent and makes you feel a little small after the high of “Kick the Hornet’s Nest” immediately preceding it)

Sloan’s Assault - Power Glove | Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (i love the entire Blood Dragon OST for being synthwave/retrowave - that is absolutely my jam, synth, 80s, and 80s synth are my bread and butter. this one in particular is so heart-pumping and energizing)

Royal Reception - Cliff Martinez | Far Cry 4 (plays in De Pleur’s mansion at the very start and plays again if you play through the whole game and finally reach Lakshmana with Pagan. There’s just something very haunting about it - it’s mired in intrigue at the start, when you’re not sure where you are or just what you should be doing)

Lakshmana - Cliff Martinez | Far Cry 4 (absolutely stunning - both tragic and beautiful. it speaks of lost and eternal love and it’s both calming and sobering)

When the Morning Light Shines In - Dan Romer | Far Cry 5 (this one...this always feels like coming home. opening up the map and being greeted with this just brings a feeling of warmth and happiness and belonging to me)

The Blessing Just Takes Minutes - Dan Romer | Far Cry 5 (this is one of my favorite “battle” themes - it just speaks of high adrenaline and fighting hard to victory)

Their Thrones Become Electric Chairs - Dan Romer | Far Cry 5 (”YOU ARE BEING HUNTED/YOU’VE BEEN MARKED”...that infamous cue comes from this one. Very industrial, sinister, and foreboding - as most of the score in the Whitetails region is - but it’s absolutely invigorating)

Faith’s Bunker Theme (Walk the Path) - Dan Romer | Far Cry 5 (absolutely haunting. it perfectly fits the hallucinatory state of Faith’s Gate and the emotional state of having just beat Faith and trying to reach the Sheriff in time. never officially released, but absolutely one of the strongest tracks of the whole game)

Bold and Brave - Dan Romer | Far Cry 5 (the backend of John’s boss battle, after his plane gets shot down into his death cutscene. it’s equal parts sinister and tragic - which fits John so well - but there’s also such an undercurrent of energy in that first half that really speaks to Rook’s need to finally stop John)

OST + Licensed soundtrack:

Make It Bun Dem - Skrillex & Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley | Far Cry 3 (it’s iconic for a reason - such an incredible mission and objective is tied to it. always reminds you what makes Far Cry games so much fun)

Paper Planes - M.I.A. | Far Cry 3 (what an opener. FC3 has some of the best and most memorable music of the series)

Should I Stay or Should I Go - The Clash | Far Cry 4 (another great opener - and closer, if you like to get the Secret Ending a lot like i do, haha. such a promise of the chaos and fun of Pagan Min’s character)

The River - The Bombay Royale | Far Cry 4 (such a good song to amp you up for the face-to-face with Pagan after spending 90% of the game away from him and communicating via only radio. it just scales up the tension for the confrontation so well)

Oh John - Dan Romer/Hammock | Far Cry 5 (i’m cheating and putting two versions of it - you could even throw the Hope County Choir version of it in here too. it’s just such a upbeat and catchy song in its original form sung by - and the Reinterpretation version of it is so dreamy and soothing, i adore them both so much)

Oh the Bliss - Dan Romer/Hammock | Far Cry 5 (cheating again by throwing in 2 versions, but oh well. it’s such a beautiful song when sung by Jenny Owen Youngs and so haunting and captivating in its Reinterpretation version - perfect for Faith)

We Will Rise Again - Dan Romer | Far Cry 5 (i just love how beautiful this one is sung - major kudos to Meredith Godreau)

Only You (And You Alone) - The Platters | Far Cry 5 (this song has forever been changed for me after FC5 - it’s hard to explain to my parents why such a romantic and sweet song can make my hair stand on end when it’s played unexpectedly, haha. speaks to the impact it made by this particular song being chosen for such an important aspect of the story)

We’ll Meet Again - Vera Lynn | Far Cry 5 (forget John whistling it in The Confession for a sec - i’ll never forget beating FC5 for the first time and the shock of ending it with Joseph being right and he and Rook alone in that bunker as the screen faded to black and this song kicked in. it was an absolute gut punch - i wasn’t necessarily mad, just completely blown away and trying to process what had just happened. it was so powerful)

Disco Inferno - The Trammps | Far Cry 5 (”Burn, Baby, Baby” remains one of my favorite missions in FC5 - the absolute insanity of Sharky’s introduction is so outrageous and fun and represents everything to love about Far Cry games)

it hurt me to leave off some of my other favorites, but i did my best to keep things level and not have everything be solely from FC3 or FC5, lol. anyway, let me know what some of your faves are!

i’ll tag @starsandskies @seedlingsinner @josephseeds-rosary @lxmbert @foofygoldfish @chyrstis @weekend-writer @amistrio @minilev @fadedjacket @red-nightskies and anyone else who would like to jump in and make their own list - be sure to tag me so i can see it!

Gwilym Borhap (Gwil X Reader) Fanfiction Part 1

Sorry this is my first one, so it’s a bit of a draft - apologies -

Part 1 was kinda an intro, hopefully leading into later parts to include Gwilym fluff, smut and borhap content.. let me know if there is anything you want requesting

You were back to filming today. You and the team had some short time off while Joe flew back after the passing of his dad, and as Joe was playing John, scenes would have been impossible to film without him.

You weren’t complaining though, this was the most beautiful dream come true of a job you could have been offered. You were playing Chrissie Mullen, Brian May’s ex wife in the film soon to be on the big screens, Bohemian Rhapsody.

The film had been an amazing opportunity for you as you hadn’t long been acting as your “full time job”. You had met so many wonderful people and formed unbreakable friendships. Working close with Rami, Joe, Gwilym, Ben and Lucy meant you’d formed a tight knit group, some friendships becoming closer than intended....

The boys were some of your closest friends, ones that wanted to protect you and adored you along with Lucy. Lucy was practically your best friend, ever since filming you’d clicked and from there started the weekend brunches, girls nights and just being each other’s main support network... of course, she was the first one you told when you developed feelings for Gwil!

Since the first day on set you felt giddy around him and as Lucy always told you “he had eyes for you on the first day”... we did share a few glances at one another, but you believed he was just being friendly. Gwil was what made the long hours and repetitive scenes bearable; his complete personality, caring, sweet, funny and a true gentleman. Not forgetting his looks, GOD... he was gorgeous, even with the Bri wig, he was absolutely drop dead gorgeous.

You’d been filming for Bohemian Rhapsody for 5 months now... enough time to develop friendships, enough time for innocent flirting with Gwil... enough time to spill all your feelings out to Lucy almost every night of how you want to be his! She’d heard it all - from the innocent “I want him to take me in his arms and softly kiss me” ... to... “I WANT TO SHAG GWIL”. ... Lucy actually couldn’t escape it, as after two months, you’d become roommates in your sizeable 2 bed apartment in Chelsea. The two weeks you were off Lucy had the pleasure of experiencing your emotions from the many texts Gwil had sent you. They were a little flirty and even Lucy stated, for someone who isn’t glued to his screen, he sure was while we had two weeks off.

... Soooo ... you’d had 2 weeks off and now Joe was extremely strong, he had returned to the UK and was ready to start up filming again.

It was 4am, an early start, as filming kicked off at 7 and before hand is always hectic. You were so excited to be reunited with your group again, you’d only seen Lucy and of course Rami for the time off, and practically third wheeled the whole time. Ben had been off seeing old school friends and trying to make the most of the time off and Gwilym was also unavailable, due to his brother getting married abroad, so he went to join his family for the week.

2 weeks seemed like a lifetime without the team together.

As Rami ensured he had his bag ready for the day, you took this opportunity to tell Lucy how you were feeling, “I’m just so nervous about seeing Gwil!”

“Why? You two are cool with each other”

“I know that!” I sighed, “but were the slightly flirty messages too much? Have I put him off?!”

“Y/N! Stop being silly.. I honestly think this is the start of something with you two!”

“WHO?” Rami exclaimed as his came waltzing in with a grin on his face. Lucy gave him a little scowl and patted him on the chest, “you’re so nosey! You don’t have to know EVERYTHING!”

Rami gave her a cheeky smile and kissed Lucy’s cheek, “oh okay! But y/n, careful you don’t go upsetting anyone as Gwilym look like he’s got eyes for you”

You tried not to burst out of your skin and squeal to Lucy, but you just smiled and nodded at his statement and all left moving onto the next topic.

As you walked down to the tube station with Rami and Lucy walking a few feet in front, you spiralled with thoughts in your head... did I hear Rami correctly?! Did he say GWIL? GWILYM?? His friend Gwilym? His friend who they both tell each other all their thoughts and issues? Rami wouldn’t just make this up? Or did he? He probably misheard Gwilym if he said anything at all!

After a 25 minute tube, you were in zone 5 and walking to some huge studio building... your heartbeat started picking up and now the joy of seeing your friends, turned into nerves of seeing Gwil... you had never been like this before!

Along with extras and yourself, Rami and Lucy, you seemed to be the first in arrival and got straight to sitting in your chairs allowing the makeup, hair and fashion artists to get to work and make you all Queens! Your nerves had started to subside as Rami kept both you and Lucy entertained! He was getting full Freddie Mercury(IED) up and repeating old lines to us, he’d turn to Lucy “there’s only room in the band for one hysterical queen”.

Sat in our chairs laughing at each other, in walked Joe, Ben and Gwilym... walking around saying hey to everyone and hugging everyone to welcome them back... you prepared for Gwil to come and embrace you after you’d given Joe a squeeze and letting him know to come to you if he needed anything, instead, Gwil practically walked around you to his chair to get his wig put on... what... you looked in the mirror and met Gwils gaze where he gave you a soft smile and then looked away to chat to Rami...

I’m sorry what... thoughts spiralled around your head? Okay so... 2 weeks of texts, some flirty and what Rami said and then how much you’d bonded in general and now this?! This wasn’t even how he treated you when you two weren’t close! It was like he was treating you like you were a stranger in the room, out of place... from there you had sunken in your chair as the hair stylist transformed you while you began to feel sorry for yourself and phased out of all the conversations for the time being...

You’d been filming for a while now and it was a very tiring day, especially after the 2 weeks of doing nothing. For the benefit of your friends you tried not to sulk and have a head fit about your wild emotions, but just enjoy their company and try to get on with work and yes, it was enjoyable, but still, Gwilym was barely acknowledging you and you were starting to get used to it. On the other hand, Joe was an absolute trooper! I don’t know anyone but him who could just get on with work and make everyone else feel so upbeat, he had us all giggling between takes. As we were around 5 months into the film, we were filming a scene at Freddie’s where he hosted an of course! Very out there party. The only part about this scene was it was where Gwil and yourself were sitting on a sofa with his arm around you... you were so confused... the flirting before the break, during the texting for 2 weeks, now he’s not talking, but why we’re shooting the scene, he’s gently rubbing my back with his thumb, out of shot from the cameras and acting as if he wasn’t doing anything at all.. God, he made me weak! I just wanted to be his! “And CUT!” Called our director, we’d just filmed as much as we could for today... We were all still sitting on the prop sofa and everyone was slowly getting up to go get their makeup and wigs off, but not Gwil. Once everyone was out of ear shot, he sighed, facing forward looking in the distance. He then turned to you, looking at you with his beautiful blue eyes with a half smile... “hi, love” he chuckled, looking down... You raised your eyebrows, “what?” You ask. Gwil still has he arm around your back and starts rubbing his thumb against you again, “look I’ve wanted to speak to you all day, but I think we both know we need to speak alone.” You smiled at him and your fear swept away, you gently smacked his thigh where he placed his hand over your hand resting on his thigh, “Gwil, I genuinely thought you didn’t want to know me! You hadn’t spoken to me all day and that’s not like us”. “Y/n! Don’t be silly! Maybe we could have that chat now? Maybe over a drink?” Gwil asked, “That’d be nice” you smiled, “but fancy taking off the Bri’s hair and taking off those clogs before we go?” You asked. Gwil patted the top of his head and realised he was in full Bri attire and giggled. Oh my god, that little chuckle he did... “give me 20 mins and I’ll be ready”, Gwil stood up pressing his hand against your bare thigh from the dress you’d been wearing during filming, as he stood up he turned and looked you up and down while you were sitting on the sofa... “unreal” he said faintly. Your head turned and you looked at him confused, but before you had anytime to question what he said he was dashing off scratching at his wig to be taken off....

The Other Worlds 2019 preview Day 4

Art by Lauren Kitching

Returning for a sixth exciting year, Other Worlds, one of the premier SciFi Film Festivals in the US, features some of the best and unheralded genre films. Beginning on Thursday December 5 at Austin’s Galaxy Highland 10, the four day event includes over 20 feature films, a slew of shorts, a screenwriting workshop, and the Mary Shelley Award. This year also features the return of Under Worlds, which brings the best of indie to Austin.

Not terribly surprising to anyone who regularly follows my writings, I’ll be there.

Here’s what to expect at Other Worlds 2019.

11:15AM AROUND THE SUN (Texas Premiere)

Oliver Krimpas | UK | 78 min

Writer: Jonathan Kiefer Cast: Cara Theobold, Gethin Anthony

A film location finder is shown around a repossessed, crumbling French château. Over the course of the afternoon, he slowly falls for both the place and the owner’s flirtatious representative, as she recounts the story of a famous book set there. But is their present-day connection for real, or just a projection of the book’s 17th Century characters? As the scene plays over in different variations, the two almost lovers orbit around each other like a binary star system, forever circling but never quite reaching each other.

11:45AM SciFi Shorts 1: Love in the Time of Robots

12PM The Old Dark House (World Premiere OF NEW SCORE)

James Whale | USA | 73 min | 1932

Writer: J.B. Priestley (from the novel by) (as J.B. Priestly), Benn W. Levy (screenplay) Cast: Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Gloria Stuart

A precursor to the genre of renegade young people getting stranded among older (and far more degenerate) adults in a remote location, THE OLD DARK HOUSE is a “pre-code” film and features some language and sexually suggestive material that would be banned from American screens until the 1960s. Boundaries will be crossed, reality will fail, and mayhem will ensue. The family our kids come across, this time, can also be seen as the grandparents of THE ADAMS FAMILY. THE OLD DARK HOUSE, is FRANKENSTEIN director, James Whale’s follow up horror film that also stars the previously unknown Boris Karloff and is a precursor to their final film together, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Like many films of the day, it was released with a “library score,” music not specifically composed for the title. Award-winning composer Jay Woelfel has composed a brand new 52-minute music score, the first ever done for the film.

1:45PM Defender of the Universe conversation with Nicholas Meyer followed by a screening of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Nicholas Meyer | USA | 110 min | 1991

Writer: Leonard Nimoy and Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal (story), Nicholas Meyer & Denny Martin Flinn (script), Gene Roddenberry (creator) Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Jame Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei

2:15PM The Ascent

Tom Paton | UK | 100 min

Writer: Tom Paton Cast: Rachel Warren, Simon Meacock, Bentley Kalu

Special ops squad “Hell’s Bastards” are sent to infiltrate a civil war to retrieve intel. The unit soon find themselves trapped on a never-ending stairwell forced to climb or die. To survive, they must revisit their past sins if they ever want to get off. 

2:15PM SciFi Shorts 2: Crossing Over to the Future

4:30PM Nicholas Meyer signing The Adventure of The Peculiar Protocols

In Collaboration with Book People and Open to the Public

With the international bestseller The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Nicholas Meyer brought to light a previously unpublished case of Sherlock Holmes, as recorded by Dr. John H. Watson. Now Meyer returns with a shocking discovery—an unknown case drawn from a recently unearthed Watson journal. After his Defender of the Universe screening on Sunday, Meyer will sign copies of his new book, which we will have on sale courtesy of Book People. Grab your own copy of the book The Wall Street journal calls “A gem … delightful reading for everyone.”

5PM Alien Addiction

Shae Sterling | New Zealand | 96 min

Writer: Shae Sterling, Melanie Price and Ricky Silvester Cast: Jimi Jackson, Thomas Sainsbury, Harry Summerfield, Jojo Waaka, Ayham Ghalayini

Riko lives in a small town in the middle of nowhere (well, Waikato, New Zealand). Life is pretty normal, that is until two aliens crash-land near his house. Fortunately for Riko, the aliens like to get high and chill as much as he does and they develop an intergalactic friendship of epic proportions, as well as a strange relationship to human feces. However, unknown to the happy go-lucky visitors, alientologist Peter Mackintosh is hot on their trail and plans to capture them and reveal them to the world.

5:05PM After We Leave (North American Premiere)

Aleem Hossain | USA | 82 min

Writer: Aleem Hossain Cast: Brian Silverman, Clay Wilcox, Anita Leman Torres, Anslem Richardson

Jack returns to a bleak Los Angeles after abandoning his wife six years ago. There’s only one way to escape this high crime, dystopian world – getting a visa to an off-world colony, but it’s a couples’ visa and Jack needs his wife to use it. Jack dives back into the world of crime that he left behind in search of his wife and a way off the planet. Is Jack back because he wants to make things right or because he needs his wife to use this “lottery ticket” to a better life?

5:10PM Long Shorts: Lingering Visions

7:40PM A Good Woman Is Hard To Find (Texas Premiere)

Abner Pastoll | UK/Belgium/Ireland | 113 min

Writer: Ronan Blaney Cast: Sarah Bolger, Edward Hogg, Andrew Simpson

Recently widowed mother of two, Sarah, is desperate to know who murdered her husband in front of her young son, rendering him mute. Coerced into helping a low-life drug dealer stash narcotics stolen from the local Mr. Big, she’s forced into taking drastic action to protect her children, evolving from downtrodden submissive to take-charge vigilante.

7:40PM The Final Land

Marcel Barion | Germany | 113 min

Writer: Marcel Barion Cast: Milan Pešl, Torben Föllmer

A runaway convict and his pursuer escape a prison planet in an old spaceship in search of a new home. As they search for a place to go, their separate paths to this moment become a point ofconflict, as well as the strange history of this derelict ship that they now drive. Then a strange signal gives them hope of a new future. In the grand tradition of 2001 and SOLARIS, THE FINAL LAND plays off the mystery of vastness of space and our still miniscule understanding of our place inside it.

7:45PM The Honeymoon Phase (Texas Premiere)

Phillip G. Carroll Jr. | USA | 88 min

Writer: Phillip G. Carroll Jr Cast: Chloe Carroll, Jim Schubin, François Chau, Tara Westwood

Struggling young couple Tom and Eve lie about being married so they can enter “The Millennium Project.” Paying $50,000, this 30-day scientific study analyzes couples’ relationships while they reside in futuristic smart homes secluded in the woods. Run by a mysterious researcher and his associate, the experiment finds Eve descending into violent madness, questioning her lover’s trust and whether he is the man she thinks he is.

THE HONEYMOON PHASE caps off the 2019 Other Worlds Program with a love story covered in tension and drama. On top of the thrilling relationship ride, the film will leave the audience with plenty to contemplate and discuss until Other Worlds 2020 begins.

The Honeymoon Phase Movie Original Pitch Video

The Other Worlds 2019 preview Day 4 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

5 Creativity Exercises to Keep You Sharp While Working From Home

April 21, 2020 5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

In times of duress, it can feel like we’ve hit a wall when it comes to creativity and innovation. In fact, studies have shown that our brains diminish in performance and problem-solving capacity when we’re burdened by chronic stress.

The cost is more than just peace of mind. McKinsey found that highly creative leaders at companies outperform their peers in multiple categories and achieve above-average revenue growth. Developing your creative process and being able to tap into it on command can increase sales and sharpen entrepreneurship at any stage.

Related: Six Healthy Ways to Lead in a Crisis

In our economic climate, the ability to focus on innovative solutions is more valuable than ever. You may find yourself offering products or services that didn’t even exist a month ago or scrambling to rebalance your budget. Or perhaps a project you’ve been working on now needs to be completed remotely, quickly, and with fewer resources. The pressure is on to deliver fresh, new solutions in a timely manner.

Help yourself unleash more winning ideas with one of these five tools designed to jumpstart your creativity.

Embrace freewriting

A common obstacle to creative problem-solving is that we’re editing for quality from the start; our standards are too high during what should be a messy, sloppy idea generation phase.

To fully uncensor your thoughts, consider freewriting, an activity formally defined by Peter Elbow in 1973 (but leveraged by great authors for centuries). Freewriting forces you to write continuously, which taps into your stream of consciousness and overrides your tendency to censor and filter your ideas.

Related: 4 Ways to Unlock Your Inner Creativity

For entrepreneurs who thrive in high-pressure situations, consider Squibly’s Most Dangerous Writing App to turn up the heat. This free desktop app lets you assign a length of time (and will assign you a topic if you choose) to write about continuously; if you pause for more than five seconds, everything you’ve written will be erased. If you need to shatter writer’s block, this unorthodox approach may do the trick.

Gamify your productivity with time tracking

If you respond well to friendly competition or contests, gamification may help with productivity, especially during a time when many of us have less structure than we’re accustomed to.

How quickly can you complete a task on your to-do list? Consider using a timer or time-tracking software to measure your output and race against the clock. Toggl is free to use and has a browser plugin for easy start and stop access when you’re feeling inspired to put blinders on and get the job done.

There are different schools of thought on how you should divvy up your working time to be most productive; some entrepreneurs swear by the pomodoro technique of 25 minutes on, five minutes off, while others shun it completely.

Stretch your problem-solving muscles

“Mindstorming” is a tactic purported by personal development guru Brian Tracy; in this exercise, you write down a problem, then brainstorm 20 unique solutions.

As Tracy points out, the first five solutions usually come easily, the next five are more challenging, and the last ten are downright excruciating. This deep work not only stretches your creative thinking but can also bolster your confidence in the face of challenging business obstacles. Over time, you’ll notice yourself become more facile with problem solving.

Visualize next steps through “sketchnoting”

Why be bound by words? Sketchnoting refers to note-taking or information-processing that incorporates shapes, arrows, containers or other visual representations. 

As explained in Dr. Betty Edwards’ seminal book Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain, verbal function and cognition mainly live in the brain’s left hemisphere, while visual function is processed in the right hemisphere.

Related: Five Books That Can Help You Boost Your Creativity

If you need to get your creative gears turning, sketchnoting possible solutions through conceptual shapes and structures might help unlock new and fresh ideas. A study from Drexel University found this artistic approach even lights up our reward pathways, making us feel more accomplished and motivated.

Do something analog

From 1980 to 2015, jobs that required analytical and social skills increased by 94 percent, whereas manual labor and jobs contingent on physical skill rose by 12 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. An abundance of screen time, however, can actually increase stress and anxiety and erode focus.

Incorporate something hands-on into your day. Even if it’s a chore like organizing your closet or deep-cleaning areas of your living space, you’ll rebalance your brain and come back to your workload fresher than if you just try to plow through.

In a famous CBS News interview, neuroscientist Kelly Lambert coined the term “behaviorceuticals” to describe how certain offline behaviors were capable of altering brain chemistry just as much as their pharmaceutical counterparts

If you’re not used to working from home, open structure and necessary self-motivation can be a challenge at first. Incorporate one or more of these tactics to stay sharp, and you’ll bring a flexible and focused energy to your work at hand during this uncertain time.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

Via http://www.scpie.org/5-creativity-exercises-to-keep-you-sharp-while-working-from-home/

source https://scpie.weebly.com/blog/5-creativity-exercises-to-keep-you-sharp-while-working-from-home

5 Creativity Exercises to Keep You Sharp While Working From Home

April 21, 2020 5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

In times of duress, it can feel like we’ve hit a wall when it comes to creativity and innovation. In fact, studies have shown that our brains diminish in performance and problem-solving capacity when we’re burdened by chronic stress.

The cost is more than just peace of mind. McKinsey found that highly creative leaders at companies outperform their peers in multiple categories and achieve above-average revenue growth. Developing your creative process and being able to tap into it on command can increase sales and sharpen entrepreneurship at any stage.

Related: Six Healthy Ways to Lead in a Crisis

In our economic climate, the ability to focus on innovative solutions is more valuable than ever. You may find yourself offering products or services that didn’t even exist a month ago or scrambling to rebalance your budget. Or perhaps a project you’ve been working on now needs to be completed remotely, quickly, and with fewer resources. The pressure is on to deliver fresh, new solutions in a timely manner.

Help yourself unleash more winning ideas with one of these five tools designed to jumpstart your creativity.

Embrace freewriting

A common obstacle to creative problem-solving is that we’re editing for quality from the start; our standards are too high during what should be a messy, sloppy idea generation phase.

To fully uncensor your thoughts, consider freewriting, an activity formally defined by Peter Elbow in 1973 (but leveraged by great authors for centuries). Freewriting forces you to write continuously, which taps into your stream of consciousness and overrides your tendency to censor and filter your ideas.

Related: 4 Ways to Unlock Your Inner Creativity

For entrepreneurs who thrive in high-pressure situations, consider Squibly’s Most Dangerous Writing App to turn up the heat. This free desktop app lets you assign a length of time (and will assign you a topic if you choose) to write about continuously; if you pause for more than five seconds, everything you’ve written will be erased. If you need to shatter writer’s block, this unorthodox approach may do the trick.

Gamify your productivity with time tracking

If you respond well to friendly competition or contests, gamification may help with productivity, especially during a time when many of us have less structure than we’re accustomed to.

How quickly can you complete a task on your to-do list? Consider using a timer or time-tracking software to measure your output and race against the clock. Toggl is free to use and has a browser plugin for easy start and stop access when you’re feeling inspired to put blinders on and get the job done.

There are different schools of thought on how you should divvy up your working time to be most productive; some entrepreneurs swear by the pomodoro technique of 25 minutes on, five minutes off, while others shun it completely.

Stretch your problem-solving muscles

“Mindstorming” is a tactic purported by personal development guru Brian Tracy; in this exercise, you write down a problem, then brainstorm 20 unique solutions.

As Tracy points out, the first five solutions usually come easily, the next five are more challenging, and the last ten are downright excruciating. This deep work not only stretches your creative thinking but can also bolster your confidence in the face of challenging business obstacles. Over time, you’ll notice yourself become more facile with problem solving.

Visualize next steps through “sketchnoting”

Why be bound by words? Sketchnoting refers to note-taking or information-processing that incorporates shapes, arrows, containers or other visual representations. 

As explained in Dr. Betty Edwards’ seminal book Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain, verbal function and cognition mainly live in the brain’s left hemisphere, while visual function is processed in the right hemisphere.

Related: Five Books That Can Help You Boost Your Creativity

If you need to get your creative gears turning, sketchnoting possible solutions through conceptual shapes and structures might help unlock new and fresh ideas. A study from Drexel University found this artistic approach even lights up our reward pathways, making us feel more accomplished and motivated.

Do something analog

From 1980 to 2015, jobs that required analytical and social skills increased by 94 percent, whereas manual labor and jobs contingent on physical skill rose by 12 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. An abundance of screen time, however, can actually increase stress and anxiety and erode focus.

Incorporate something hands-on into your day. Even if it’s a chore like organizing your closet or deep-cleaning areas of your living space, you’ll rebalance your brain and come back to your workload fresher than if you just try to plow through.

In a famous CBS News interview, neuroscientist Kelly Lambert coined the term “behaviorceuticals” to describe how certain offline behaviors were capable of altering brain chemistry just as much as their pharmaceutical counterparts

If you’re not used to working from home, open structure and necessary self-motivation can be a challenge at first. Incorporate one or more of these tactics to stay sharp, and you’ll bring a flexible and focused energy to your work at hand during this uncertain time.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/5-creativity-exercises-to-keep-you-sharp-while-working-from-home/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/04/5-creativity-exercises-to-keep-you.html

Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman Gamble $1.8 Billion on Quibi

LOS ANGELES — They had to cancel the premiere party. But Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman have stuck with the April 6 start date of Quibi, the short-form video app for smartphones that they hope will attract millions of subscribers.The two veteran executives have led some of the nation’s top companies for decades. But they have spent the last two years in start-up mode, prodding investors to kick in nearly $1.8 billion and courting producers and stars like Jennifer Lopez, LeBron James, Chance the Rapper, Idris Elba, Bill Murray, Steven Spielberg and Chrissy Teigen. Now Mr. Katzenberg and Ms. Whitman are ready to unveil their ambitious venture right in the middle of a pandemic.“This is either going to be a massive home run or a massive swing and miss,” said Michael Goodman, a media analyst at Strategy Analytics.Quibi, a portmanteau of “quick bites,” will offer movies, reality shows and news programs made for the smartphone, with no installment clocking in at more than 10 minutes. The offerings fall into three main categories: movies that will be released in chapters; documentaries and unscripted reality shows; and quick-hit news and sports reports from NBC, BBC, ESPN and others. Fifty shows will be available Monday.Before the spread of the coronavirus, whenever Mr. Katzenberg and Ms. Whitman made their Quibi pitch, they described it as an on-the-go diversion for anyone standing in line at Starbucks or riding the subway. The pandemic changed the context. With potential customers largely confined to their homes, it will now go up against established platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video that can be watched on any screen, including the living room TV. Quibi works only on the phone.Ms. Whitman said she wasn’t concerned about the crisis’s effect on the start-up’s chances. “Think about how often you use your phone when you’re homebound,” she said. “People who are home with their children would really like a 10-minute break.”There is also the question of how much people are willing to spend on streaming at a time when nearly 10 million are out of work. Entertainment options have also expanded while Mr. Katzenberg and Ms. Whitman were building their app with 267 employees in an open-floor office in Hollywood. The Walt Disney Company and Apple joined the streaming party in November, with Disney Plus and Apple TV Plus, and TikTok, filled with short homemade videos, had a spectacular rise, hypnotizing the young viewers Quibi hopes to attract.Under those circumstances, Quibi (rhymes with “libby”) announced last month that it would be free for its first three months. After that, the cost will be $5 a month with ads and $8 without. Shortly after the announcement of the introductory offer, the company canceled its premiere party, which was expected to draw 150 celebrities among its 1,500 guests, because of the pandemic. But delay the launch? No way.“Given the quality and quantity and convenience of Quibi, we think it comes at a time when people are looking for relief, looking for distraction and looking to escape,” Mr. Katzenberg said. “Those are all the things we are trying to deliver to them.”Mr. Katzenberg, 69, and Ms. Whitman, 63, have dived headlong into a challenging third act, creating a product geared to people half their age at a time when millennials and Gen Z-ers have taken to needling their elders (see “OK Boomer”).The head of Walt Disney Studios at the time of the original version of “The Lion King,” Mr. Katzenberg has often gone against the grain. Passed over for the No. 2 job at Disney in 1994, he built a rival conglomerate, DreamWorks SKG, with Mr. Spielberg and David Geffen. He also waged a legal battle against his former employer, saying he had deserved more compensation. The bitter, headline-generating fight concluded with Disney handing him a settlement estimated at $250 million.DreamWorks faded, but DreamWorks Animation, the spinoff run by Mr. Katzenberg, survived until 2016, when Comcast’s NBCUniversal bought it for $3.8 billion. As part of the deal, Mr. Katzenberg received a $420 million payout — and reluctantly stepped aside.In the back of his mind was a failed initiative similar to Quibi: Pop.com, a side venture he had started in 1999 with Mr. Spielberg, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard as a venue for video shorts. It went bust before it even launched.Quibi’s other leader, one of the country’s most powerful female executives, rose through the ranks of American business at Disney, DreamWorks and Hasbro before she took eBay from a shop with a staff of 30 to a global powerhouse with 15,000 workers and $8 billion in annual revenue. When she left, in 2008, she was a billionaire.She went on to spend more than $100 million of her fortune to run as a Republican for governor of California, only to lose the 2010 election to Jerry Brown. A return to business put her in charge of Hewlett-Packard, which she left in 2017. “I’ve been working straight for 35 years,” she said upon her departure. “I’m going to enjoy some downtime.”But she soon joined Mr. Katzenberg at what was then called New TV, after he had raised $1 billion from Hollywood studios, the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and other investors. “She doesn’t like this, but I keep saying we’re two old dogs who have a new trick,” Mr. Katzenberg said at the time.Ms. Whitman left her home in Northern California for a West Hollywood high-rise. Now she can see Mr. Katzenberg’s house in Beverly Hills from her bedroom window.Start-ups rarely run smoothly, and several prominent executives have left Quibi over the last year, including Janice Min, the former co-president of The Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group; Diane Nelson, a former Warner Bros. executive; and Tim Connolly, a former Hulu executive. Mr. Katzenberg and Ms. Whitman are known as exacting managers who keep an eye on the tiniest detail.The company has also had trouble getting the word out. Although Quibi spent millions on commercials that ran during the Super Bowl and the Oscars, 68 percent of participants in a Morning Consult/Hollywood Reporter poll last month said they were not familiar with the brand.“Part of the reason awareness is so low is they are building a new name,” said Ross Benes, a video analyst at eMarketer. “Quibi takes time to explain. It’s not super clear that this will cost you $5 a month and you’ll get a lot of short videos.”Stay-at-home mandates have complicated the rollout, with meetings held via video conference. “Even though Zoom is great, I can’t really read the body language in the room,” Ms. Whitman said. “And that has always been an important part of how I gauge who is doing what to whom and how things are working.”Mr. Katzenberg and Ms. Whitman had an easy time making deals partly because of the terms they offer: The company pays for production costs and licensing rights, allowing anyone the creators of Quibi programs to retain copyright, meaning they can sell their work to another platform or network after a set number of years.Nicole Clemens, the president of Paramount Television, received an offer from Quibi for “When the Streetlights Go On,” a script about the aftermath of the murder of a suburban teenager that had once been shot as a Hulu pilot. “It was an incoming call,” Ms. Clemens said, “which is always nice to get.” The Quibi version will be part of the Monday launch.Writers who sign on have to follow a rule of Mr. Katzenberg’s: They must end each installment with a cliffhanger. Nick Santora, the writer of “Most Dangerous Game,” an action film starring Liam Hemsworth and Christoph Waltz, described hitting those marks as “hard but exhilarating.” To pull it off, he refashioned his 48-page pilot script, initially written for NBC, into a 150-page screenplay with a climax every 10 pages.“When you’re writing a regular script, and you need a scene to tell a certain arc in your story, and it takes 12, 13 pages, it’s no big deal,” he said. “You can’t do that in Quibi. Once you get to page 10, you’re done.”Quibi intends to set itself apart from YouTube, the leader in short-form digital video, because of its reliance on an old-fashioned Hollywood hallmark: production values. Quibi films cost up to $100,00 per minute. And Mr. Katzenberg’s long experience has taught him how to handle the talent, even as his reputation as a relentless boss holds firm.“You don’t always hear from the biggest exec at the company,” said Ryan Case, the director of “Flipped,” a comedy starring Will Forte and Kaitlin Olson. “But he called me, the writers and the cast members on a Saturday at our homes to say he was excited. It was both wonderful and classy.”Unlike Disney Plus, which gained subscribers on the strength of its “Star Wars” series, “The Mandalorian,” Quibi hopes to lure viewers with its overall lineup. “I think we have fantastic shows,” Ms. Whitman said, “but I also think it’s the sum total of what we are offering, as opposed to one ‘Mandalorian.’”The companies making a line of Quibi programming called Daily Essentials have faced the toughest challenge. Madeleine Haeringer, an NBC News executive producer, spent months assembling a 50-person team able to produce twice-daily 5- to 7-minute shows. Her job got trickier when employees were forced to work from home. A week before the start date, she delivered test episodes remotely, with anchors on iPads.“It’s incredibly daunting,” Ms. Haeringer said.Quibi’s unscripted shows bring to mind to cable fare and syndicated programs. Ms. Teigen’s “Chrissy’s Court” is the app’s answer to “Judge Judy,” and Ms. Lopez produces a show that follows celebrities as they give $100,000 to someone who meant a lot to them.Will Quibi be the next digital thing or a flop? That is the $1.8 billion question.“On the plus side, Quibi is like nothing else,” said Mr. Goodman, the media analyst. “On the other hand, while we know that there is a tremendous amount of video being consumed on phones, we also know that people don’t want to pay for video on their phones.”Mr. Katzenberg and Ms. Whitman say they will beat the odds. Noting Quibi’s debut slate of movies in chapters, Mr. Katzenberg said, “All five of those I think are great. Not good. Great.”Ms. Whitman sounded more circumspect. “This is very different from a movie launch,” she said. “We are building a new consumer product.” Read the full article

Warshaw: Dairon Asprilla creates Cascadia chaos in victory over Seattle

div.video-js { width: 100% !important; height: 0 !important; overflow: hidden; position: relative; padding-top: 56.2%; }

November 9, 20183:51PM EST

It only makes history if it’s crazy. The ordinary falls into binary codes of the internet. The bonkers gets implanted in our memories.

Raul Ruidiaz scoring a side volley to keep Seattle alive with four minutes left. Dairon Asprilla, statistically shown to be one of the worst finishers in MLS history, had a textbook finish to put Portland ahead in extra time. Nicolas Lodeiro stepping up to the spot, with the silence of 40,000 held breaths to bring the game even again.

Then Asprilla — Asprilla again! — standing over the potential game-winning penalty as Timbers fans across the country held their heads. All that hate they’d spewed toward Asprilla over the last few years… all those angry screams at bad misses, the frustration, the disgust… and it came down to this guy. “I didn’t mean it!”

The wild ending felt all the more stark given the tepid early stages of this Western Conference Semifinal. For 158 minutes, the Timbers imposed their defensive mindset on these Audi 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs. They didn’t seem intent on creating anything — instead banking on Seattle to mess up. And after Seattle lost two of their key players in the first 40 minutes of the tie, they never really seemed that likely to break Portland down.

Then Jeff Attinella gifted Seattle a goal.

From there, the teams simply couldn’t cope, tactically or mentally, with the rapidly changing game states. Within a 60-minute span, the teams swapped roles four times. But as the score shifted, the teams struggled to adapt.

With the series tied 2-2 on aggregate, the Timbers suddenly needed a goal. They subbed Asprilla on in replace of the more defensive Andy Polo. Seattle, on the other hand, didn’t have any defensive options on the bench to lock down the game. Harry Shipp — in the starting lineup for the first time since September 15th, replacing the injured Cristian Roldan — looked gassed. But Brian Schmetzer’s top two substitute choices, Will Bruin and Handwalla Bwana, were both attackers. So Schmetzer didn’t have a clean way to counter Portland’s changes. Portland became the ones pushing the game.

Then Portland scored through Sebastian Blanco in the 78th! Now Seattle needed to become the aggressor again and Portland needed to defend the fort. But Portland had Asprilla on the field, plus looked generally spent after pushing for the goal. Schmetzer made two attacking subs, bringing on Bruin to play next to Ruidiaz up top and Bwana in place of defender Kelvin Leerdam. Portland struggled to regain their defensive posture. Another mistake, this time from Blanco, gave Ruidiaz another goal.

As the game went to extra time, it felt like an inevitable Sounders win. Home team with the momentum? I’ll take that line every time. But then Valeri served a seven-course meal to Asprilla on the corner of the six and Asprilla took it perfectly. Advantage, Portland — again! But, once more, they never seemed like they were going to hold onto it. At this point, they were in a 5-3-2 and ceding space in front of them. The Sounders were getting easy balls into the box, and the Timbers center backs weren’t winning the aerial duels once the balls arrived. Second balls turned into potential handballs that turned into a penalty.

The emotional duress and drastic mindset shifts were huge; when one team needed to switch from “HOLY CRAP WE HAVE TO SCORE!” to “WE NEED TO BE SMART AND DISCIPLINED,” they couldn’t do it. And we ended up with one of the more memorable games in MLS playoff history.

It’s heartbreaking for the Sounders’ community, but the team deserves credit just for taking the game as late as they did. How many teams in the league could reach extra time of a playoff series without two of their five most important players? Could Portland have won this tie without Valeri, Blanco, or Diego Chara?

It’s disappointing that the Sounders got eliminated the way they did. Seattle had an interesting project taking place. In the age of micro-managed, system-based teams, the Sounders were organic. They figured it out as they went. And I wanted to see how far they could take it.

They were attempting a new (or at least bringing back an old) paradigm and it deserved its chance to go as far as it could. I doubted it, but I was fine being proven wrong. Unfortunately, now we will never know, and never get a chance to learn from it. The injuries to Roldan and Marshall derailed the project. They didn’t lose because they weren’t good enough, they lost because they were missing two of their five most important players. I’m not sure we will see an open-ended team be as good as the Sounders were in 2018 for a long time.

It’s on to the next one for Portland. They survived. It wasn’t pretty, but rather more of the same. And that same has been invincible through 2018. When they take a defensive approach, they are undefeated in 20 attempts — their losses in the last seven months have come when they’ve tried to diverge. They might not necessarily be one of the two best teams in the West, but they’ve proven to be the hardest to beat.

Timbers fans should be excited. But they may also want to whisper a few apologies to Asprilla at some point before the next round.

Series: 

Topics: 

hr.top-border-fade {background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) linear-gradient(to right, #ffffff 0%, #dfdfdf 50%, #ffffff 100%) repeat scroll 0 0;margin:20px 0 0 0;clear:both;border:0;height:1px;color:#dfdfdf;} .merch-block { background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) radial-gradient(50% 30px at 50% 100% , #ebebeb 0%, #fff 110%) repeat scroll 0 0; /* border-top:1px solid #ebebeb; */ padding:15px 15px 22px 15px; } .item, .copy {display:inline-block;vertical-align:middle;} .item {line-height:0;} .item img {line-height:0;} .page-node .copy p {margin:0;} .page-node .copy p.merch-block-text {font-size:1.0em;line-height:1.40em;} .page-node .copy p.merch-block-title {font-size:1.4em;margin-bottom:3px;font-family:’din_regular’,’Helvetica Neue’, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;;} @media screen and (max-width: 730px) { .item {margin:0 15px;line-height:0;} .item img {width:100%;height:auto;} .page-node .copy {margin:20px 0 0 0;} .wide {display:none;} } @media screen and (min-width: 731px) and (max-width: 1120px) { .item {margin-right:20px;line-height:0;} .item img {width:120px;height:auto;} .page-node .copy {width:70%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 1121px) { .item {margin-right:20px;line-height:0;} .item img {width:165px;height:auto;} .page-node .copy {width:70%;} .page-node .copy p.merch-block-title {font-size:1.3em;} }

<!–

Stay connected: Get access to breaking news, videos, and analysis from North America’s best soccer reporters via “This Week in MLS” newsletter or using our FREE mobile app.

–>

Stay connected: The all-new, completely redesigned, FREE official MLS app is your best mobile source for scores, news, analysis and highlights. Download:  App Store  |  Google Play

#block-block-188 {padding:0;} #stay-connected {border-top:1px solid #ebebeb;margin:20px 0;} #stay-connected p {margin:0;color:#4d4d4d;line-height:1.5em;} @media screen and (max-width: 730px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:100%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 731px) and (max-width: 1120px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:100%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 1121px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:708px;} }

MLSsoccer.com News

Warshaw: Dairon Asprilla creates Cascadia chaos in victory over Seattle was originally published on 365 Football

NFL Quarterbacks Are Leaning On The Short Pass — And It’s Not Working

Picture this common scene on a Sunday afternoon. Your team could really use a scoring drive to turn the tide. On a 3rd-and-10, before the quarterback is even pressured, he quickly throws a 2-yard pass, and the receiver is tackled a few yards later to bring up fourth down. The crowd grumbles, the offense casually jogs off the field and the punting unit comes on. Better luck next time.

Sure, once in a blue moon the offense may throw a bubble screen on 3rd-and-33 and end up with a 52-yard touchdown, like the Rams did with Robert Woods against the Giants in Week 9 this season. But that is the rarest of exceptions.

Generally, safe passes like that don’t accomplish much, and we have the data to back that up. How does that 2-yard pass on 3rd-and-10 work out? According to the ESPN Stats & Information Group, quarterback passes thrown no more than 2 yards beyond the line of scrimmage on third down with at least 10 yards to go have been converted only 10.9 percent of the time this season. On throws that travel at least 10 yards, quarterbacks have converted 38.6 percent of the time. So an offense can more than triple its conversion rate just by doing the most obvious thing when trying to move the chains: throwing the ball past the imaginary yellow line on your TV screen.

And yet despite this, NFL teams are leaning on the short pass more than ever. The same league that transformed into a passing league over the past 10 years is slowing morphing into something else: the dump-off league.

There are some risks with throwing deeper, of course, such as a higher interception rate. And in some special situations, getting a first down isn’t the primary goal of a drive, especially when facing third-and-long. Sometimes teams are just trying to get enough yards to make a field-goal attempt shorter. Or with a big lead in the second half, they’re hoping for an easy completion that will run some clock and gain field position.

But when an offense really needs to score points, playing it safe and throwing short of the sticks on third down is often the inferior strategy. We looked at the data from ESPN Stats & Info for passes on 3rd-and-10 or longer for Weeks 1 to 13. We divided the passes between those thrown short of the sticks and those thrown at or beyond the sticks:1

Short passes become punts

Key outcomes for passes on 3rd-and-10 or longer, Weeks 1-13

PASS THROWN ATTEMPTS COMP% YPA TD% INT% CONV. RATE Short of the sticks 672 73.2% 6.6 1.2% 2.4% 12.5% At or beyond the sticks 390 42.8 9.6 4.4 3.8 42.6

Source: ESPN Stats & Information Group

The completion rate for short throws is more than 30 percentage points higher than the rate for longer passes and yet the conversation rate is more than 30 points lower. This is not surprising because defenses are playing to prevent the first down and are willing to concede a fraction of the yardage. However, this positioning make it very difficult for a team to throw short and run after the catch to convert.

So far we have only talked about third downs, the crucial down for maintaining offensive success. However, analyzing aggressive and conservative passing on first and second down is also important. A bubble screen that loses a few yards to bring up 2nd-and-13 is also putting the offense in a position to fail.

Football Outsiders’ key efficiency metrics, including Defense-adjusted Value Over Average (explained here), are built around the concept of successful plays and are adjusted for factors like the down and distance. For instance, a 5-yard pass on 3rd-and-3 is more valuable than a 5-yard pass on 2nd-and-17. For a pass to be considered a successful play, it must gain at least 45 percent of the needed yards on first down, 60 percent on second down, and 100 percent on third and fourth. A completion that does not meet those standards is considered a failed completion. Joe Flacco of the Ravens set the failed completion record last season, with 144, and he leads all quarterbacks in 2017 with 95 through Week 13.

It’s not just Flacco. The ineffective dump-off is happening across the NFL. Leaguewide, 26.1 percent of all completions this season qualify as failed completions. That’s the highest rate for a season in the Football Outsiders database, which goes back to 1989, and if the 2017 rate stays at that level, it will break the current high bar set in 2015 (25.1 percent).

This is not to say that the short pass doesn’t have value in the NFL playbook or that every quarterback should begin slinging the ball 25 yards downfield each time he takes a snap. There is no one right way to run an NFL offense, and some teams have been able to use the short pass to devastating effect. To get a better sense of this, let’s look at which quarterbacks throw short most often using air yards stats.2

Football Outsiders has a stat called “Short%” to denote the percentage of attempts that a quarterback threw short of the minimum yards needed for a successful play, as defined above. So if 45 percent of needed yards are required on first downs, then anything shorter than a 5-yard throw on first-and-10 would be considered a short pass here. The league average for Short% in 2017 is 41.6 percent on first down, 45.5 percent on second down, and 42.5 percent on third down. It’s not until fourth down that most quarterbacks realize the importance of needing to convert with a big throw. Short% on fourth down is 26.2 percent (although that is only on a sample of 214 plays).

We looked at Short% on first, second and third downs for quarterbacks who have had a minimum of 200 dropbacks this season. For the 35 quarterbacks, we took the z-score (standard deviations above or below average) of each percentage and added them up, to make sure we were accurately capturing quarterbacks who threw short on all of their downs relative to the league. The quarterback with the largest summed z-score in the table below is the most conservative, as a higher percentage of his passes were short of being a successful play.

Which quarterbacks are the most conservative passers?

Which quarterbacks throw short of a “successful” pass distance the most relative to their peers (as measured by the z-scores — the standard deviations above/below the mean — of the Short%* for each down added together), minimum 200 dropbacks through Week 13 of the 2017 season

FIRST DOWN SECOND DOWN THIRD DOWN SHORT% Z-SCORE SHORT% Z-SCORE SHORT% Z-SCORE TOT. D. Brees (NO) 52% 1.38 54% 1.10 53% 1.39 3.87 J. Flacco (BAL) 48 0.79 55 1.28 51 1.12 3.19 C. Beathard (SF) 50 1.07 47 0.19 55 1.65 2.91 A. Smith (KC) 48 0.82 55 1.32 46 0.54 2.68 B. Hoyer (SF/NE) 45 0.42 55 1.27 49 0.90 2.59 J. Cutler (MIA) 42 0.02 51 0.66 56 1.77 2.45 B. Bortles (JAC) 50 1.12 48 0.35 48 0.70 2.17 B. Hundley (GB) 51 1.24 48 0.25 47 0.56 2.05 K. Cousins (WAS) 47 0.70 46 0.03 50 1.05 1.78 J. McCown (NYJ) 49 0.97 47 0.20 46 0.52 1.69 C. Keenum (MIN) 50 1.07 46 0.02 46 0.50 1.59 J. Brissett (IND) 46 0.48 53 1.03 42 -0.06 1.45 P. Rivers (LAC) 44 0.30 51 0.67 45 0.32 1.29 E. Manning (NYG) 43 0.12 55 1.34 40 -0.22 1.25 A. Rodgers (GB) 60 2.38 52 0.89 24 -2.28 0.99 A. Dalton (CIN) 39 -0.43 58 1.66 36 -0.76 0.46 D. Carr (OAK) 43 0.11 45 -0.12 45 0.33 0.32 M. Trubisky (CHI) 29 -1.64 53 1.01 49 0.90 0.28 T. Taylor (BUF) 38 -0.55 44 -0.23 45 0.42 -0.37 M. Stafford (DET) 40 -0.22 50 0.54 37 -0.70 -0.38 C. Newton (CAR) 50 1.07 38 -1.10 39 -0.37 -0.40 J. Goff (LAR) 40 -0.18 41 -0.69 44 0.26 -0.60 D. Kizer (CLE) 37 -0.68 42 -0.52 44 0.28 -0.91 T. Siemian (DEN) 34 -0.97 42 -0.59 46 0.50 -1.05 M. Ryan (ATL) 34 -0.97 45 -0.10 41 -0.09 -1.17 B. Roethlisberger (PIT) 47 0.68 38 -1.11 36 -0.75 -1.19 M. Mariota (TEN) 37 -0.64 46 0.04 33 -1.10 -1.70 C. Palmer (ARI) 29 -1.63 46 -0.03 40 -0.33 -1.98 T. Brady (NE) 36 -0.79 42 -0.54 34 -1.06 -2.40 R. Wilson (SEA) 36 -0.73 37 -1.27 38 -0.52 -2.52 T. Savage (HOU) 38 -0.47 42 -0.55 30 -1.57 -2.59 D. Prescott (DAL) 36 -0.81 32 -1.96 42 -0.05 -2.82 C. Wentz (PHI) 35 -0.92 39 -0.95 34 -1.06 -2.93 D. Watson (HOU) 30 -1.53 31 -2.13 40 -0.26 -3.92 J. Winston (TB) 30 -1.62 32 -1.95 22 -2.54 -6.10

Higher z-scores mean a quarterback throws short more often. *Short% is the share of passes that fall short of a successful play’s distance (at least 45 percent of the needed yards on first down, 60 percent on second down, and 100 percent on third)

Source: Football Outsiders

Some of the names at the top of the list are predictable, including Flacco and infamous short pass maestro Alex Smith. Jay Cutler has been very dink-and-dunk oriented with Adam Gase in Miami this season, while San Francisco’s first two quarterbacks this season (Brian Hoyer and C.J. Beathard) made the top five.

The real surprise here is the name at the very top: Drew Brees. Not only does he rank as the most conservative passer, but he has consistently stuck to this strategy no matter what the down is. To his credit, Brees has made it work — the Saints rank No. 1 in offensive DVOA and No. 6 in passing. Perhaps more accurately, the running backs are making this offense work. Through Week 13, rookie Alvin Kamara ranked as the best receiving running back while teammate Mark Ingram ranks as Football Outsiders’ top rusher. With two RBs capable of big gains on any play, it’s no surprise that Brees is throwing short early and often. We’ll see if this strategy can sustain itself — the Saints have failed to score 21 points in all four of their losses this season (each was to a playoff contender, including last night’s loss to Atlanta).

At the bottom, seven quarterbacks had a combined z-score below 2.0 standard deviations. That includes the trio of favorites for the MVP race in Tom Brady, Russell Wilson and Carson Wentz, whose aggressive styles this year have been a positive for their offenses. Similar things could have been said about Deshaun Watson before Houston’s standout rookie tore his ACL.

But being aggressive is not a magic formula for success as the list plainly shows. Watson’s backup, Tom Savage, has tried to emulate Watson’s aggressive style, but without anywhere near the same success. Likewise, Jameis Winston of the Buccaneers is routinely one of the leaders in air yards per attempt, but his lack of consistency remains a problem for Tampa Bay. In Dallas, Dak Prescott is throwing aggressively, but his receivers are getting the fewest yards per carry after the catch in the league.

Like with any stat, Short% is only one piece of the puzzle, and every quarterback has his own set of circumstances. As we see with Brees, a quarterback can get away with passive play if he’s extremely efficient and the team is still winning.

Few quarterbacks have this type of arsenal or this type of ability, so they would be better served trusting the numbers and resisting the easy dump-off.

Check out our latest NFL predictions.

from News About Sports https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/nfl-quarterbacks-are-leaning-on-the-short-pass-and-its-not-working/

Is Mariah Carey���s Backup Dancer-Boyfriend Her Kevin Federline?

Follow

Annotation

‹ Homepage

Next in Entertainment ›

Getty Images

ALL SHE WANTS

Is Mariah Carey’s Backup Dancer-Boyfriend Her Kevin Federline?

Accused of sexually harassing her former head of security this week, Maria Carey now faces claims she has handed control of her career over to her 34-year-old backup dancer BF.

Tom Sykes

11.10.17 3:03 AM ET

Christmas is a busy time of year to be Mariah Carey, so there will be concern among fans booked for her popular “All I Want For Christmas” tour which kicks off next week that the iconic singer’s career is being mismanaged by her backup-dancer boyfriend, Bryan Tanaka, in what a source describes as “a full-on Britney-and-Kevin Federline situation.”

Carey, who was this week accused of sexually harassing her bodyguard by partially exposing herself to him in a paused draft court action, recently split with her mercurial manager Stella Bulochnikov, according to a report on Page Six this morning.

Bulochnikov engineered her reality show, her just-completed Las Vegas residency, her tour with Lionel Richie and her upcoming Christmas shows, according to Page Six, but was pushed out recently by Tanaka, 34, who has been dating Carey, 47, since her split from Australian billionaire James Packer.

A source tells Page Six: “Bryan is behind the whole split between Mariah and Stella. Bryan believes that he should be the one running Mariah’s day-to-day life, and he’s been orchestrating Stella’s exit for a long time. No one enjoys working with Stella. There’s no secret that some people are happy she’s out of the picture.”

Carey’s career was famously masterminded at the outset by her then-husband Tommy Mottola.

He launched Carey as an artist in 1990, and shepherded Carey to global superstardom.

But the contrast with Tanaka, sources say, could not be greater.

Related in Entertainment

Mariah Carey Accused of Sexual Harassment

Megyn Kelly Drags Other NBC Shows Down With Her

Weinstein’s Wife Georgina Chapman Leans On Huma Abedin

“The boyfriend backup dancer isn’t the right person to run her career. He’s definitely no Tommy Mottola,” the source told Page Six.

Another source told Page Six: “This is a full-on Britney-and-Kevin Federline situation. Brian is a backup dancer, and knows nothing about managing an iconic artist.”

The paper claims that Carey is paying Tanaka up to $12,000 a week.

“Mariah is in love with Bryan and is like a schoolgirl around him. He has totally manipulated the situation to take over her life and push out everyone else, and Mariah just can’t see it.”

Carey’s spokeswoman denied to Page Six that Tanaka is currently managing Carey’s career, but they also “declined to explain who actually is.”

  Sponsored Stories

AMA Quickly Issuing New Proprietary Analyses Codes, but Will They Improve… GenomeWeb

The Ralph Lauren Holiday Collection is Here! Shopological

Mansion Global Daily: The State of the Manhattan Luxury Market Mansion Global

PerkinElmer Builds on Newborn Screening With New Clinical Genomic Testing… GenomeWeb

Plaque Psoriasis Medication - See A Medication Option Local.com

The Most Hilarious Photos Captured At The Airport OMG!

This free Outlook app helps you find anyone's email address. Inc.com

Cool Options for Oenophiles Mansion Global

Recommended by

NO LAUGHING MATTER

Louis C.K.’s Powerful Army of Celebrity Enablers

For years, Louis C.K.’s fellow male comedians refused to comment on the sexual misconduct allegations against their friend (and sometime mentor).

Marlow Stern

11.10.17 12:00 AM ET

In the fall of 2015, I sat down with Aziz Ansari to discuss his excellent new Netflix series Master of None. We met at The Greenwich Hotel (his suggestion) and, over the course of an hour—and several cups of coffee—engaged in a lively, unbridled discussion touching on race, comedy, and everything in between.

There was only one question that he refused to answer.

Midway through the interview, the topic of sexual harassment came up. The seventh episode of his show, titled “Ladies and Gentlemen,” sees Dev (Ansari’s character) and his pal Denise (Lena Waithe) making a citizen’s arrest after catching a middle-aged man masturbating on the subway. Dev then proceeds to take a victory lap, bragging about the incident to his other female friends, who subsequently brand him a “masturbation vigilante” before sharing their own sexual harassment horror stories.

“The seed of that episode came from a bit during my Madison Square Garden special where I’d talk about women getting followed home by creepy dudes, and I’d ask during the bit, ‘Raise your hands if you’re a woman and you’ve been followed home,’ and everyone would raise their hand. And then all the other women would look around and go, ‘What the fuck?!’ Then, I’d ask all the guys if they expected all the women to raise their hands, and none of them really did. They couldn’t believe it,” he told me.

He continued: “I thought it was interesting that this is happening, yet so many people are unaware of it. And the problem is people aren’t talking about it. What I’ve learned, as a guy, is to just ask women questions and listen to what they have to say. Go to your group of female friends and ask them about times they’ve experienced sexism at their job, and you’ll get blown away by the things they tell you. You’ll think, ‘What the fuck? This is way darker than anything I’d imagined.’”

I then proceeded to ask him about the sexual misconduct allegations against Louis C.K., a sometime mentor of Ansari’s. The two share a manager, Dave Becky, and booking agent, Mike Berkowitz—two of the more powerful figures in the comedy world, who also represent Kevin Hart and a slew of other top-shelf comics.

“I’m not talking about that,” Ansari brusquely replied.

“I was told to delete a tweet I wrote about Louis CK abusing women before I applied to a high-profile comedy job because the people conducting the hiring process might not like it.”

— Nicole Silverberg, comedian

Related in Entertainment

Stephen Colbert Calls Out His Former Boss Louis C.K.

Louis C.K. Has No Choice But to Handle Allegations Now

Alec Baldwin’s Bizarre James Toback Rant

Over the years, I’ve asked a number of famous male comedians about the allegations against Louis C.K., which have been widely known since a 2012 Gawker story titled, “Which Beloved Comedian Likes to Force Female Comics to Watch Him Jerk Off?” They’ve all either declined to comment or, in the case of Jim Gaffigan, went off the record to share their thoughts on the matter. Only a handful of brave female comics were willing to shine a spotlight on C.K.’s alleged abuse, including Roseanne Barr and Tig Notaro in interviews with The Daily Beast.

The tentacles of Louis C.K., who stands accused of sexual misconduct by at least five women, spread throughout the comedy world. He worked as a staff writer for Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Late Show with David Letterman, and The Chris Rock Show. As head writer on The Dana Carvey Show, he was boss to comedians Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell. He mentored the likes of Ansari and Amy Schumer, and counts Jerry Seinfeld and Ricky Gervais as personal friends. Many of these A-listers in the C.K. orbit surely knew about the widespread sexual misconduct allegations against the comedian, but chose to turn a blind eye to it. Instead, they welcomed C.K. on their programs, like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, casually reminiscing about comedy days of old.

After The New York Times’ investigation broke on Thursday, Parks and Recreation creator Mike Schur issued an apology for having C.K. on his NBC show even though he’d caught wind of the allegations against him (the show’s star, Amy Poehler, shares a manager with C.K.):

These days, C.K. is one of the most famous comedians alive. He regularly sells out Madison Square Garden, has a lucrative deal with Netflix, and produces and stars in a number of TV shows, including the FX programs Louie, Baskets, and Better Things. Next week, he was scheduled as one of the headliners of the Jon Stewart-hosted Night of Too Many Stars: America Unites for Autism Programs. The program will still air November 18th on HBO, but without the participation of C.K., whose content was also removed from all HBO platforms. FX, for its part, issued a statement that read:

“We are obviously very troubled by the allegations about Louis C.K. published in The New York Times today. The network has received no allegations of misconduct by Louis C.K. related to any of our 5 shows produced together over the past 8 years. FX Networks and FXP take all necessary actions to protect our employees and thoroughly investigate any allegations of misconduct within our workplace. That said, the matter is currently under review.”

Get The Beast In Your Inbox!

Daily Digest

Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.

Cheat Sheet

A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).

By clicking “Subscribe,” you agree to have read the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

It was not easy to stand up to someone as well-connected as C.K. On Thursday afternoon, the comedian Nicole Silverberg shared a disturbing story on Twitter that spoke to C.K.’s power and influence. “I was told to delete a tweet I wrote about Louis CK abusing women before I applied to a high-profile comedy job because the people conducting the hiring process might not like it. These women who have spoken up are brave, and we owe them so much,” she wrote. Meanwhile, in The New York Times piece, the comedy duo of Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov, who charge that C.K. abruptly began masturbating in front of them, said that “when they told others about the incident in the Colorado hotel room, they heard that Louis C.K.’s manager was upset that they were talking about it openly. The women feared career repercussions.”

On top of all this is the cavalier way C.K. approached the sexual misconduct allegations against him—brushing off questions in interviews with non-denial denials, and even going so far as incorporating them into his art.

Rape and masturbation jokes have long been a staple of C.K.’s stand-up oeuvre, but in recent years, in the wake of the aforementioned Gawker exposé, the comedian appeared to be taunting his victims—and the public. First came the controversial Louie episode “Pamela: Part 1,” wherein his character, an avatar of himself, attacks Pamela Adlon’s in an apartment, attempting to overpower her before she finally fights free. C.K. later argued that the scene represented a “consensual” encounter, calling it “a fun train wreck of a ride.” Then there’s his upcoming film I Love You, Daddy, a bizarre ode to Woody Allen focusing on a sixty-something director engaged in a romantic affair with a 17-year-old girl, where “a character pretends to masturbate at length in front of other people, and other characters appear to dismiss rumors of sexual predation,” reported the Times.

In the wake of sexual assault allegations against film mogul Harvey Weinstein, filmmakers James Toback and Brett Ratner, and the actor Kevin Spacey, there’s been plenty of talk about the nature of allyship and how passivity on the part of powerful men contributes to a culture of silence surrounding sexual abuse. Why did Brad Pitt, one of the biggest movie stars in the world, work with Harvey Weinstein not once, but twice after the executive had allegedly attacked both his ex-fiancée Gwyneth Paltrow and then-wife Angelina Jolie? Why did Quentin Tarantino, whose films are responsible for much of Weinstein’s success, continue to work with him after learning that he attacked his ex-girlfriend, Mira Sorvino?

The onus can’t only be on women to stand up to male predators. Men—particularly men of power and influence—must be willing to speak up for what is right, and refuse to align themselves with the creeps of the world.  

Politics

Entertainment

World News

Drink and Food

Arts and Culture

U.S. News

Tech

Hunt for the Cure

Science

About

Advertise

Contact

Jobs

Help

Privacy

Code of Ethics & Standards

Terms & Conditions

Copyright & Trademark

Sitemap

© 2017 The Daily Beast Company LLC

Tags: November 10, 2017 at 08:25AM Open in Evernote

Press Releases: MotorWeek’s Season 37 drives into the future September 9th

MotorWeek’s Season 37 drives into the future September 9th

<!-- p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 14.0px} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; color: #222222; -webkit-text-stroke: #222222} p.p4 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; color: #222222; -webkit-text-stroke: #222222; min-height: 14.0px} p.p5 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 12.0px Arial; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} span.s2 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none; color: #0000ff; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #0000ff} span.s3 {font: 8.0px Arial; font-kerning: none} span.s4 {font-kerning: none; color: #1f497d; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #1f497d} span.s5 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none; color: #1f497d; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #1f497d} -->

OWINGS MILLS, MD – Drive into the future during season 37 of MotorWeek, television’s original and longest-running automotive magazine series. Join host John Davis and the MotorWeek team to experience all that’s new for 2018, the year where the concept of the ultra-smart “future car” becomes an affordable reality. MotorWeek premieres on public television stations across the country beginning Saturday, September 9 (check local PBS listings).

   MotorWeek’s new season drives deep into this exciting automotive revolution, one that is altering every aspect of the familiar family car. From rapid advances in self-driving car technologies, to the expanding world of on-the-road connectivity, to greater use of electrical motive power, and even a fundamental change in how a car’s comfort and convenience systems themselves are powered, MotorWeek is ready to be your “future car” GPS.  

  “When consumers head out to purchase a new car, they are being confronted with dramatic and often confusing changes – things they have never seen on a vehicle before,” says MotorWeek host John Davis. “Semi-autonomous driving capabilities, automatic emergency braking, active cruise control and lane change assist, self-parking modes, in-car Wi-Fi hubs, 48-volt electrics, automatic start-stop, surround view cameras, and the list goes on and on. Not only will consumers find these changes in vehicle amenities surprising, they will also surely change their driving habits forever.”

  MotorWeek road tests will also be keeping ahead of current consumer buying trends, as the appeal of the traditional cars increasingly gives way to the popularity of trucks and SUVs. New utilities already on our test schedule, such as the Ford Expedition, Mazda CX-5, and Volkswagen Atlas, will face renewed efforts to stem the tide with ground-up redesigns for sedan stalwarts Toyota Camry and Honda Accord among others. 

  Season 37 of MotorWeek will also continue to analyze the rapid growth of electrified vehicles, and not just plug-in hybrids and full EVs, but how electric assist is being employed to boost both the power and efficiency of traditional internal combustion engines.

  “In spite of lower gas prices, countries and car companies around the globe are embracing the electrification of the automobile,” explains Davis. “It’s a way to preserve the environment without giving up performance. We’re not talking about the demise of the traditional gasoline and diesel engines but rather taking their efficiency to the next level.”

The American consumer’s appetite for the automobile is insatiable, and in the quest to feed the ongoing frenzy, MotorWeek will continue to road test and review more than 150 new cars, utilities, and trucks throughout the 37th season.  

  In addition, during this season MotorWeek will inaugurate two new limited run features focusing on the incredible legacy of the automobile. “Spirit of Competition” will highlight the history of some of the rarest and most significant race cars ever built. But, this is not just a walk around a collection of museum artifacts. MotorWeek will also be behind the wheel of these race winning classics to give viewers a taste of what they were actually like to drive by the checkered flag. 

  “Retro Roadtests” will expand from its highly successful and exclusive presence online to the television series itself. “Retro Roadtest” looks back at the most exciting and interesting cars MotorWeek tested in its early years. Hearing what was said about those cars then, and knowing how they are viewed today, is guaranteed to bring a smile to the face of everyone who loves cars.

  In Season 37, MotorWeek’s feature line-up also includes the return of popular segments such as Goss’ Garage with master technician Pat Goss offering know-it-yourself car care advice.  “Over the Edge” reporter Zach Maskell turns up the fun with a look at the auto world in overdrive, while “FYI” reporter Lauren Morrison has updates on driving style and automotive safety, money-saving advice, as well as the latest technological advances. MotorWeek’s Brian Robinson takes a very hands-on approach for his “Two Wheelin’” reports with reviews of the newest motorcycles. Finally, Yolanda Vazquez keeps viewers in the know with consumer news and trends on “Motor News.” 

  MotorWeek airs on 92 percent of PBS stations nationwide. Viewers can find out which public television stations air MotorWeek by going to the station listings page on motorweek.org.

  Winner of dozens of prestigious automotive journalism awards, MotorWeek is also seen on Discovery’s Velocity cable channel, and on the V-me Spanish-language network.

  In addition, MotorWeek is available for every type of video screen and mobile device with up-to-the-minute automotive news, instantaneous driving impressions, and exclusive videos online at motorweek.org. In addition, more than 500 of the latest MotorWeek roadtests are available through series partner cars.com. 

  Program excerpts are available at pbs.org/motorweek, and MotorWeek’s YouTube Channel, http://youtube.com/motorweek, with two million views per month. Viewers can also follow MotorWeek on Facebook, Twitter as well as download complete shows on iTunes.

  MotorWeek is nationally sponsored by TireRack.com, WeatherTech, RockAuto.com, and State Farm. MotorWeek is produced and distributed by Maryland Public Television.

  # # #

  from MotorWeek Entries http://ift.tt/2ipsaXy via IFTTT

Eric Jackson Tech & Media Email: Thanks To Bob Bakish, Viacom Is On The Offense Again

Eric Jackson Tech & Media Email: Thanks To Bob Bakish, Viacom Is On The Offense Again p{ margin:1em 0; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } img,a img{ border:0; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ display:block; margin:0; padding:0; } body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100% !important; margin:0; padding:0; width:100% !important; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } #outlook a{ padding:0; } img{ -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } td,table{ mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt; } p,a,li,td,body,table,blockquote{ -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; } .ExternalClass,.ExternalClass p,.ExternalClass td,.ExternalClass div,.ExternalClass span,.ExternalClass font{ line-height:100%; } #templateHeader,#templateBody,#templateFooter{ min-width:100%; } a.mcnButton{ display:block; } .mcnImage{ vertical-align:bottom; } .mcnTextContent img{ height:auto !important; } body,#bodyTable{ background-color:#FFFFFF; } #bodyCell{ border-top:0; } #templateContainer{ border:0; } h1{ color:#202020 !important; font-family:Helvetica; font-size:24px; font-style:normal; font-weight:bold; line-height:125%; letter-spacing:normal; text-align:left; } h2{ color:#202020 !important; font-family:Helvetica; font-size:20px; font-style:normal; font-weight:bold; line-height:125%; letter-spacing:-.75px; text-align:left; } h3{ color:#202020 !important; font-family:Helvetica; font-size:18px; font-style:normal; font-weight:bold; line-height:125%; letter-spacing:normal; text-align:left; } h4{ color:#202020 !important; font-family:Helvetica; font-size:16px; font-style:normal; font-weight:bold; line-height:125%; letter-spacing:normal; text-align:left; } #templateHeader{ border-bottom:0; } .headerContainer .mcnTextContent,.headerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ color:#202020; font-family:Helvetica; font-size:15px; line-height:150%; text-align:left; } .headerContainer .mcnTextContent a{ color:#202020; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:underline; } #templateBody{ border-top:0; border-bottom:0; } .bodyContainer .mcnTextContent,.bodyContainer .mcnTextContent p{ color:#202020; font-family:Helvetica; font-size:15px; line-height:150%; text-align:left; } .bodyContainer .mcnTextContent a{ color:#202020; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:underline; } #templateFooter{ border-top:0; } .footerContainer .mcnTextContent,.footerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ color:#202020; font-family:Helvetica; font-size:11px; line-height:125%; text-align:left; } .footerContainer .mcnTextContent a{ color:#202020; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:underline; } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ body{ width:100% !important; min-width:100% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ td[class=footerContainer] a[class=utilityLink]{ display:block !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ td[class=mcnImageGroupContent]{ padding:9px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ td[class=mcnImageCardBottomImageContent]{ padding-bottom:9px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ table[class=mcpreview-image-uploader]{ display:none !important; width:100% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ td[class=mcnImageGroupBlockInner]{ padding-top:0 !important; padding-bottom:0 !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ tbody[class=mcnImageGroupBlockOuter]{ padding-top:9px !important; padding-bottom:9px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ td[class=mcnTextContent],td[class=mcnBoxedTextContentColumn]{ padding-right:18px !important; padding-left:18px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ table[class=mcnCaptionLeftContentOuter] td[class=mcnTextContent],table[class=mcnCaptionRightContentOuter] td[class=mcnTextContent]{ padding-top:9px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ td[class=mcnImageCardLeftImageContent],td[class=mcnImageCardRightImageContent]{ padding-right:18px !important; padding-bottom:0 !important; padding-left:18px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ td[class=mcnImageCardTopImageContent],td[class=mcnCaptionBlockInner] table[class=mcnCaptionTopContent]:last-child td[class=mcnTextContent]{ padding-top:18px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ img[class=mcnImage],table[class=mcnCaptionTopContent],table[class=mcnCaptionBottomContent],table[class=mcnTextContentContainer],table[class=mcnImageGroupContentContainer],table[class=mcnCaptionLeftTextContentContainer],table[class=mcnCaptionRightTextContentContainer],table[class=mcnCaptionLeftImageContentContainer],table[class=mcnCaptionRightImageContentContainer],table[class=mcnImageCardLeftTextContentContainer],table[class=mcnImageCardRightTextContentContainer],table[class=socialContainer]{ width:100% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ .mcnBoxedTextContentContainer{ max-width:100% !important; min-width:100% !important; width:100% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ table[id=templateContainer],table[id=templatePreheader],table[id=templateHeader],table[id=templateBody],table[id=templateFooter]{ max-width:600px !important; width:100% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ h1{ font-size:24px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ h2{ font-size:20px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ h3{ font-size:18px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ h4{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ td[class=headerContainer] td[class=mcnTextContent],td[class=headerContainer] td[class=mcnTextContent] p{ font-size:18px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ td[class=bodyContainer] td[class=mcnTextContent],td[class=bodyContainer] td[class=mcnTextContent] p{ font-size:18px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ td[class=footerContainer] td[class=mcnTextContent],td[class=footerContainer] td[class=mcnTextContent] p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:115% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:480px){ table[class=mcnBoxedTextContentContainer] td[class=mcnTextContent],td[class=mcnBoxedTextContentContainer] td[class=mcnTextContent] p{ font-size:18px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } Who would've thought a year ago that Viacom would be on the offense again sniffing buying Scripps?

The Eric Jackson Tech & Media Email

#48: July 26, 2017

Share

Tweet

Forward

Thanks To Bob Bakish, Viacom Is On The Offense Again

When Bob Bakish was named acting CEO of Viacom last October, most media reporters and sell side analysts saw him as a caretaker. They thought it was a signal that Viacom’s owner, Shari Redstone through National Amusements’ controlling stake, was gearing up to merge the company into CBS and let Les Moonves run it. 

Yet, 9 months later, Bakish isn’t selling Viacom off for parts. He’s actually in the bidding to acquire Scripps Networks - with an enterprise value of $13 billion. According to the Wall Street Journal, Bakish is making a late major push to acquire the set of networks controlling HGTV, the Food Network, and the Cooking Channel. (Reuters first reported last week that Viacom was in the mix, along with perceived front-runner Discovery, to buy Scripps.)

The price action of the stocks on Tuesday -- with a big rise in Scripps’ price, large drop in Discovery’s, and small drop in Viacom’s -- suggests that the market thinks Viacom is now a more likely acquirer of Scripps than Discovery. 

How did Viacom go from being a laughing stock in the media world to being on the hunt for other acquisitions?

First, it took Shari Redstone stepping up and pushing for changes at Viacom’s board level. She brought in Nicole Seligman, the former President of Sony Entertainment, and Ken Lerer, the VC behind Huffington Post and Buzzfeed. These changes, in turn, led to the departure of former Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman. 

Enter Bob Bakish.  The former head of Viacom International was not well known outside the company but had done a great job with the international networks. Even today, few investors give Viacom credit for its investments in India, the UK’s Channel 5 and a recent push into Latin America.

While media watchers sat back last fall to await Les Moonves to ride in on a horse and take over, Bakish got down to work on a turnaround strategy.  All of the rumors last Fall were that Moonves would only consider taking on the assets of Viacom if it came at a steep discount along with a meaningful bump in the CBS management team’s compensation. While Shari Redstone could have forced a merger give National Amusements’ control of both CBS and Viacom, she found Bakish’s turnaround plan more appealing. 

Since getting the training wheels taken off the bike and being named permanent CEO, Bakish has gone back to his International playbook and made several other big changes.

He’s cut the number of channels in the Viacom portfolio to the strongest ones. He’s changed up management with a nod to people who have had success. Chris McCarthy had given a spark to the old adult contemporary video channel VH1 and was promoted to take over MTV.  The dividend was cut. Their stake in Epix was sold for $600 million to pay down debt. Offshore cash was used to make international investments like Argentina’s Telefe. He made longtime Fox exec Jim Gianopulos the head of Paramount. He brought in Brian Robbins from Awesomeness to Paramount to help attract more young adults. He also was able to woo Tyler Perry away from the Oprah Winfrey Network to start producing content for BET starting in 2019. 

Now Bakish wants Scripps - for the same reasons I discussed David Zaslav of Discovery wanting the company earlier this week. Bakish would have a much stronger hand in his upcoming negotiations with cable and satellite companies about what they’ll pay him for his channels if he has some additional popular ones (HGTV and Food Network) on his menu. Those new channels also lend themselves well to the new skinny bundles being launched. Scripps also generates lots of cash flow ($1.5 billion a year) which would help service Viacom’s $12 billion in debt.

However, many - including CNBC’s David Faber - are skeptical that Viacom will be able to close the deal because of Viacom’s already low credit rating. Were Viacom to use a high proportion of their own cash to finance the Scripps deal, their leverage ratio would rise from 3x currently to well over 5x. That would be astronomically high for a media company. 

Win or lose, the bottom line here is that Viacom is back on the offensive.  And the market seems to like it. Viacom’s stock price has moved up in the last week or so as these rumors about Scripps have surfaced. Also, as Faber noted in his report, Viacom’s debt spreads haven’t moved at all, meaning that the credit markets aren’t looking negatively on this type of deal.

Bakish still has a long way to go to prove Shari Redstone was right to believe in his turnaround plan over merging with Les Moonves, but Bakish is planting all the right seeds. 

Just to be in the mix for acquiring Scripps is a victory for Viacom compared to where it was a year ago at this time.

Articles: Discovery's David Zaslav isn't ducking the future by looking to buy Scripps—he's prioritizing Zaslav thinks there's more upside in combining assets than throwing money at a new streaming service with unproven demand. He's right, argues Eric Jackson.

Bill Simmons is wrong about how ESPN blew it in digital Bill Simmons is being too hard on his former employer, argues Eric Jackson.

Five things to keep an eye on in Sun Valley, Idaho, this week

What kinds of discussions could happen at this year's Sun Valley meetings leading to future deals? Why a messaging start-up is making its own digital currency instead of going public

The current gold rush mentality with cryptocurrencies will probably only get bigger in the months and years to come. Fox Sports has few good options after the departure of Jamie Horowitz

Fox Sports' head of sports programming, Jamie Horowitz, didn't improve ratings as much as hoped. His exit leaves it with few good options.

These are the best business, technology, and media podcasts

It's a great time for podcasts, but interesting ones are harder to find than they should be, says Eric Jackson. Why ESPN is still well-positioned to keep NFL rights in 2022 and beyond

ESPN's rights to broadcast NFL games will be renegotiated in a few years. Here's why it's likely to keep them. Apple has to get over its privacy hang-ups and launch better services Do Apple users want better privacy or better services?

Podcasts:

Subscribe on iTunes, Soundcloud, Google Play or Stitcher: Ep. 63 - The Holes In Bill Simmons' Critiques of ESPN Ep. 62 - No Silver Bullets for Fixing FS1 After Horowitz Departure

I am a tech and media investor based in Toronto. You can sign up for future versions of this newsletter here. 

Copyright © 2017, Eric Jackson, All rights reserved. from Eric Jackson List Archive Feed http://ift.tt/2uXkvFf via IFTTT

The top 5 conference series upsets in MLS Cup Playoffs history

November 7, 20181:37PM EST

With all four lower-seeded teams still in with a shot at springing a Conference Semifinal surprise, it felt like a good time to look back over league history to find the biggest playoff upsets that took place after any preliminary rounds but prior to MLS Cup.

It really should come as no surprise that the all of our picks here occurred in the Conference Semifinals, as that round is more likely to pit two teams far apart in the regular-season standings against each other.

Before we get started with the ranking, let’s pour one out for the nearest miss: The Montreal Impact’s surprise Eastern Conference Semifinal disposal of the New York Red Bulls in 2016.

No. 5: New England over Columbus Crew SC, 2004

New England’s Taylor Twellman | Getty Images

The New England Revolution finished an underachieving regular season 16 points back of Supporters’ Shield victors Columbus, and needed a closing-day win over Chicago just to edge out the Fire for the last playoff spot on goal differential.

Nevertheless, Steve Nicol had a strong side that featured Rookie of the Year Clint Dempsey, Shalrie Joseph, Pat Noonan, Steve Ralston and Taylor Twellman. Those players all showed up for the Conference Semifinals, which opened with the underdogs claiming a 1-0 home triumph on Avery John’s first-half strike.

Columbus turned up the heat in the decisive second leg at Crew Stadium (now MAPFRE Stadium), but squandered a host of early chances. Their profligacy grew as the match wore on, with both Ross Paule (a perfect 4-for-4 from the spot during the regular season) and Tony Sanneh having weak penalty-kick efforts denied by Revolution backstop Matt Reis.

Twellman then doubled the Revs’ aggregate lead nine minutes from time, rendering a stoppage-time goal by Edson Buddle as mere consolation.

No. 4: New York Red Bulls over Houston Dynamo, 2008

[embedded content]

The Red Bulls squeaked into the postseason by a single point, and their reward was being shipped over to the West bracket to face two-time defending league champs and 2008 Shield runners-up Houston in the Conference Semifinals.

Few observers gave the Red Bulls a chance against a team that had outdone them by 12 points during the regular season. But they drew first blood when Juan Pablo Angel nodded home shortly after intermission of a physical Giants Stadium leg. The Dynamo responding by piling on the pressure until Kei Kamara stabbed in a loose ball five minutes from time to seemingly put the MLS Cup holders back in control.

However, that notion was thrown out the window when Dane Richards surged up the middle to put RBNY ahead to stay midway through the opening frame of the return. Ten minutes later, the Jamaican winger got loose on the right and his cross was blocked by Ricardo Clark’s arm, setting up Angel at the spot to double the aggregate lead.

Houston threw everything they could at away goalkeeper Danny Cepero, to no avail. Nine minutes from time, Richards broke free down the right again, centering for John Wolyniec to snap his 28-game goal drought by hammering in the final nail. The Red Bulls went on see their improbable run end with an MLS Cup defeat against Columbus.

No. 3: Chicago over D.C. United, 2007

Chris Rolfe with Chicago | Brian Kersey/Chicago Fire

D.C. United were fresh off winning a second straight Supporters’ Shield with an experienced, cohesive squad with several key cogs still around from their 2004 MLS Cup title team. On the other hand, the exciting but highly inconsistent Fire had the fewest wins and the second-worst goal differential out of the eight-team playoff field.

Just 14 minutes into the Toyota Park opener, Chicago showed they were ready to rumble with a capital crew that had outdone them by 15 points in the regular season. The Black-and-Red defense misjudged a long bouncing ball and Chris Rolfe swept in to fire the first leg’s only goal.

The upset was well and truly on when the Fire scored two goals late in the first half of the return leg at RFK Stadium. Chad Barrett and Rolfe struck two minutes apart, each set up by MLSsoccer.com’s own Calen Carr, to put Chicago in the series’ driver seat. Clyde Simms and Christian Gomez hit late to pull D.C. within one, but that is where the home side’s deciding-leg rally stalled.

No. 2: Real Salt Lake over Columbus, 2009

[embedded content]

When the 2009 MLS Playoffs began, Real Salt Lake had played all of one postseason match in their short history, and that game ended in a tough Conference Championship home loss to that same Red Bulls side the year prior. Finishing nine points behind Shield-winning MLS Cup champions Columbus, they narrowly made it back to the postseason on the head-to-head tiebreaker after ending the regular season level on points with both Colorado and D.C. United.

It may not have sounded like the starting point of a title run at the time, but RSL quickly showed they meant business against a stacked Crew SC side led by Guillermo Barros Schelotto. They kept an insistent Columbus attack off the board until Robbie Findley tucked a Yura Movsisyan cross past Will Hesmer in the 88th minute of the opener at the RioT.

Though RSL were ahead to start the away leg, Columbus had to like their chances of flipping the scoreline at home. They liked their chances even better when Barros Schelotto bagged a brace in the opening 35 minutes to put the champs on top in the tie.

The feeling didn’t last long. Less than two minutes later, Javier Morales scored to pull RSL level (the away goals tiebreaker was not used at the time). Just before the break, Frankie Hejduk hauled down free-kick target Fabian Espindola to concede Columbus’ first penalty of the entire season and Robbie Findley converted to put the underdogs on top. Andy Williams completed the upset sweep with an angled, seeing-eye strike in the 74th minute.

No. 1: LA Galaxy over San Jose Earthquakes, 2005

[embedded content]

After a solid 2004 regular season that ended in playoff failure, the LA Galaxy turned over nearly two-thirds of their roster heading into the following campaign. One of those new players was US men’s national team star Landon Donovan, who was making a Cali Clasico switch (via Bayer Leverkusen) after helping the Earthquakes claim two MLS Cups in four seasons.

Even with that talent swing, the 2005 Quakes were Supporters’ Shield winners coming off one of the best MLS seasons at the time. They had a host of guys with two titles already under their belts that would soon go on to win back-back to crowns in Houston, plus Danny Califf and Mark Chung. They ended the regular season 19 points above the rival Galaxy, who backed into the playoffs on a tiebreaker after dropping a 3-1 home decision to their derby rivals on closing day.

It had been a roller-coaster campaign for LA, who were hindered throughout the summer and fall by national team call-ups and their run to the U.S. Open Cup crown. They got their act together in time for the first leg, which saw them exact fast revenge with a 3-1 home victory over San Jose. Donovan’s 39th-minute tally stood up as the winner, and he also skillfully added late insurance to put his former side in a bind.

In the second leg at Spartan Stadium, Brian Ching gave the Earthquakes hope by slicing the aggregate lead to one a moment before halftime. The comeback was cut short, however, as Ned Grabavoy restored the visitors’ two-goal advantage and the Galaxy were on their way to a second MLS Cup title.

Topics: 

hr.top-border-fade {background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) linear-gradient(to right, #ffffff 0%, #dfdfdf 50%, #ffffff 100%) repeat scroll 0 0;margin:20px 0 0 0;clear:both;border:0;height:1px;color:#dfdfdf;} .merch-block { background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) radial-gradient(50% 30px at 50% 100% , #ebebeb 0%, #fff 110%) repeat scroll 0 0; /* border-top:1px solid #ebebeb; */ padding:15px 15px 22px 15px; } .item, .copy {display:inline-block;vertical-align:middle;} .item {line-height:0;} .item img {line-height:0;} .page-node .copy p {margin:0;} .page-node .copy p.merch-block-text {font-size:1.0em;line-height:1.40em;} .page-node .copy p.merch-block-title {font-size:1.4em;margin-bottom:3px;font-family:’din_regular’,’Helvetica Neue’, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;;} @media screen and (max-width: 730px) { .item {margin:0 15px;line-height:0;} .item img {width:100%;height:auto;} .page-node .copy {margin:20px 0 0 0;} .wide {display:none;} } @media screen and (min-width: 731px) and (max-width: 1120px) { .item {margin-right:20px;line-height:0;} .item img {width:120px;height:auto;} .page-node .copy {width:70%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 1121px) { .item {margin-right:20px;line-height:0;} .item img {width:165px;height:auto;} .page-node .copy {width:70%;} .page-node .copy p.merch-block-title {font-size:1.3em;} }

<!–

Stay connected: Get access to breaking news, videos, and analysis from North America’s best soccer reporters via “This Week in MLS” newsletter or using our FREE mobile app.

–>

Stay connected: The all-new, completely redesigned, FREE official MLS app is your best mobile source for scores, news, analysis and highlights. Download:  App Store  |  Google Play

#block-block-188 {padding:0;} #stay-connected {border-top:1px solid #ebebeb;margin:20px 0;} #stay-connected p {margin:0;color:#4d4d4d;line-height:1.5em;} @media screen and (max-width: 730px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:100%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 731px) and (max-width: 1120px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:100%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 1121px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:708px;} }

MLSsoccer.com News

The top 5 conference series upsets in MLS Cup Playoffs history was originally published on 365 Football

Los Angeles Football Club vs. Seattle Sounders FC | 2018 MLS Match Preview

April 26, 20185:55PM EDT

LAFC vs. Seattle Sounders FC 2018 MLS Regular Season – Week 9 Banc of California Stadium – Los Angeles April 29 – 9 pm ET WATCH: FS1, MLS LIVE on DAZN (in Canada)

After a very respectable four wins in six road matches, LAFC are ready for a housewarming party and will christen Banc of California Stadium against Seattle Sounders FC, who will be hungry to spoil the party and avenge a season-opening 1-0 loss at CenturyLink Field.

LAFC closed out their season-opening road trip with a come-from-behind 5-3 win over the 10-man Montreal Impact, while the Sounders snapped a four-match winless streak to beat Minnesota United FC, 3-1, Sunday at home.

In the first-ever meeting between LAFC and Seattle, Diego Rossi struck for the game’s lone goal in the 11th minute and Tyler Miller made seven saves against his former club in the historic victory.

LAFC

Apparently, Bob Bradley’s side likes to do things in twos. After opening the season with consecutive wins followed by back-to-back defeats, LAFC won their second in a row Saturday by spoiling the Impact’s opener at Stade Saputo.

Benny Feilhaber, Carlos Vela and Latif Blessing found the back of the net as part of a four-goal explosion after halftime for LAFC, which benefitted from a Jukka Raitala own goal. Laurent Ciman also had a special return to Montreal, scoring against his former club in the 24th minute as LAFC rallied from a pair of two-goal deficits as a result of an Ignacio Piatti hat trick.

“In these six games, we’ve had periods of good football,” Bradley said after the game. “We still have other moments when things get away from us, but the starting point is pretty good.”

Suspended: None

Suspended after next caution: None

International duty: None

Injury Report: OUT: GK – Luis Lopez (right tibial stress fracture); QUESTIONABLE: D – Joao Moutinho (left quad strain)

Projected Starting XI (3-4-3, right to left) GK: Tyler Miller — Dejan Jakovic, Walker Zimmerman, Laurent Ciman — Steven Beitashour, Benny Feilhaber, Mark-Anthony Kaye, Jordan Harvey — Diego Rossi, Marcos Urena, Carlos Vela

Notes: Vela and Rossi each have two goals scored from outside the box this season. Only one other player (Yamil Asad) has scored multiple goals from outside the box. … LAFC have scored 2.76 goals more than their expected goals total, the third-best differential in the league.

Seattle Sounders FC

It took a bit longer than anyone expected, but Seattle Sounders FC (1-3-1) finally picked up their first MLS win of 2018, a much-needed 3-1 victory over Minnesota United FC Sunday.

Gustav Svensson and Will Bruin scored two minutes apart to stake the Rave Green an early advantage and Jordy Delem’s first MLS goal deep into second-half stoppage time allowed the fans to finally exhale and celebrate the victory.

Brian Schmetzer made three changes to his starting XI that played Sporting Kansas City to a 2-2 draw the previous week. Kelvin Leerdam returned from suspension to start at right back, Osvaldo Alonso, who was named to the MLS Team of the Week presented by Audi for Week 8, made his first start after coming back from injury, and Alex Roldan earned his second start in the midfield alongside his brother Cristian.

Not starting, though, was Clint Dempsey, who came off the bench for the final 30 minutes and set up Delem’s insurance marker.

Schmetzer wasn’t quite ready to dub Dempsey a super sub, but also understands it’s not a role the veteran would embrace.

“I don’t think Clint Dempsey is ok with anything but starting and scoring goals,” Schmetzer said. “That’s what he’s done his entire career.”

Suspended: None

Suspended after next caution: None

International duty: None

Injury Report: OUT: F – Jordan Morris (torn ACL), M – Harry Shipp (ankle sprain); QUESTIONABLE: D – Kim Kee-Hee (right calf strain); D – Waylon Francis (right hamstring strain), M – Victor Rodriguez (right knee sprain), 

Projected Starting XI (4-2–3-1, right to left) GK: Stefan Frei — Kelvin Leerdam, Roman Torres, Chad Marshall, Nouhou Tolo — Gustav Svensson, Osvaldo Alonso — Nicolas Lodeiro, Cristian Roldan, Alex Roldan — Will Bruin

Notes: Nico Lodeiro and Cristian Roldan each had five key passes in Seattle’s win over Minnesota last weekend, the first pair of Sounders teammates to do so in a MLS match. … Including last year’s postseason run, Seattle has now either been held scoreless or scored multiple goals in their last 16 matches. They have yet to keep a clean sheet this season after being the joint leaders in the category a year ago with 13.

All-Time Series

This is the second all-time meeting between LAFC and Seattle Sounders FC with LAFC winning their inaugural match, 1-0, at CenturyLink Field on March 4.

Officials

Referee: Kevin Stott Assistant Referees: Brian Poeschel, Cameron Blanchard 4th Official: Baldomero Toledo VAR: Alex Chilowicz

#block-block-188 {padding:0;} #stay-connected {border-top:1px solid #ebebeb;margin:20px 0;} #stay-connected p {margin:0;color:#4d4d4d;line-height:1.5em;} @media screen and (max-width: 730px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:100%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 731px) and (max-width: 1120px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:100%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 1121px) { #stay-connected {padding:8px 6px 0 6px;width:708px;} }

hr.top-border-fade {background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) linear-gradient(to right, #ffffff 0%, #dfdfdf 50%, #ffffff 100%) repeat scroll 0 0;margin:20px 0 0 0;clear:both;border:0;height:1px;color:#dfdfdf;} .merch-block { background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) radial-gradient(50% 30px at 50% 100% , #ebebeb 0%, #fff 110%) repeat scroll 0 0; /* border-top:1px solid #ebebeb; */ padding:15px 15px 22px 15px; } .item, .copy {display:inline-block;vertical-align:middle;} .item {line-height:0;} .item img {line-height:0;} .copy p {margin:0;} .copy p.merch-block-text {font-size:1.0em;line-height:1.40em;} .copy p.merch-block-title {font-size:1.4em;margin-bottom:3px;font-family:’din_regular’,’Helvetica Neue’, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;;} @media screen and (max-width: 730px) { .item {margin:0 15px;line-height:0;} .merch-block .item img {width:100%;height:auto;} .copy {margin:20px 0 0 0;} .wide {display:none;} } @media screen and (min-width: 731px) and (max-width: 1120px) { .item {margin-right:20px;line-height:0;} .merch-block .item img {width:120px;height:auto;} .copy {width:70%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 1121px) { .item {margin-right:20px;line-height:0;} .merch-block .item img {width:165px;height:auto;} .copy {width:70%;} .copy p.merch-block-title {font-size:1.3em;} }

hr.top-border-fade {background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) linear-gradient(to right, #ffffff 0%, #dfdfdf 50%, #ffffff 100%) repeat scroll 0 0;margin:20px 0 0 0;clear:both;border:0;height:1px;color:#dfdfdf;} .merch-block { background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) radial-gradient(50% 30px at 50% 100% , #ebebeb 0%, #fff 110%) repeat scroll 0 0; /* border-top:1px solid #ebebeb; */ padding:15px 15px 22px 15px; } .item, .copy {display:inline-block;vertical-align:middle;} .item {line-height:0;} .item img {line-height:0;} .copy p {margin:0;} .copy p.merch-block-text {font-size:1.0em;line-height:1.40em;} .copy p.merch-block-title {font-size:1.4em;margin-bottom:3px;font-family:’din_regular’,’Helvetica Neue’, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;;} @media screen and (max-width: 730px) { .item {margin:0 15px;line-height:0;} .merch-block .item img {width:100%;height:auto;} .copy {margin:20px 0 0 0;} .wide {display:none;} } @media screen and (min-width: 731px) and (max-width: 1120px) { .item {margin-right:20px;line-height:0;} .merch-block .item img {width:120px;height:auto;} .copy {width:70%;} } @media screen and (min-width: 1121px) { .item {margin-right:20px;line-height:0;} .merch-block .item img {width:165px;height:auto;} .copy {width:70%;} .copy p.merch-block-title {font-size:1.3em;} }

MLSsoccer.com News

Los Angeles Football Club vs. Seattle Sounders FC | 2018 MLS Match Preview was originally published on 365 Football