#balance board uk
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#electric scooter For Sale UK#Buy electric scooter Online#electric scooter for kids#balance board uk#electric scooter buy online#electric scooter uk#Best electric scooter UK#Best electric scooter Deals#electric scooter go kart#electric scooter kart#best Electric Scooters in Uk
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Wooden balance board
Find more info at: https://bit.ly/3fAXAIE
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How Many More Times Can We Say It? Your Harry Potter Addiction Is Funding Transphobia
An anti-trans group called For Women Scotland is crowdfunding their legal challenge over the Scottish government’s definition of the word ‘woman’ in the 2018 Gender Representation on Public Boards Act. To quote Pink News, ‘The legislation aims to ensure public boards have a 50% women gender balance in non-executive member positions, and it includes a definition of the word “woman” that is inclusive of trans women who have a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). FWS argued including trans women in this definition would impact women’s rights and expressed concerns about wider implications for single-sex spaces.’ The group lost their appeal at the Court of Session in November but were granted permission this month to appeal the decision to the UK Supreme Court. They just received £70,000 from one user under the name ‘JK.’ It’s J.K. Rowling. The accompanying post said, ‘You know how proud I am to know you. Thank you for all your hard work and perseverance. This is truly a historic case.’
I’m not sure I can shout it from the rooftops anymore. Harry Potter fans: this is where your money is going. This is where the cash you handed over is being put to use. Do you even care?
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You know nothing, Jon Snow
It's been a short night and a hot summer day in here. But I just received the last of the goods in my secondary inbox and am still unpacking, pondering and putting the data into context.
Work with me:
To begin somewhere, this is the exact content of the (in)famous Shamrock Anon submission to this blog, as delivered almost 23 hours ago:
Put yourselves in my shoes and read with me: "the Irish based drinks company (not the one accessible to fans) is solely owned by him and DF".
An Irish company? "Not accessible to fans?" Owned only by these two people and not her, on her turf? Now that could have been a nuke, because hello, where is the logic in all this, and who does that, and yes, why?
By the time I wrote my brief Shamrock Anon post, in the hope of luring this person to share more, the same message had already been delivered to at least two other shipper blogs. That would make three of us: the controversial newbie (I am not blind, but I am not cantankerous either), the respected veteran sleuth and Super Dispatch, with what I believe to be the intent of pushing an agenda of sorts. I chose not to publish Anon, because: 1) I needed more and yes, I needed to check and 2) I felt there was something bizarre with all this.
@luhafraser published it and I am truly relieved they did. I posted an update that apparently got even more people confused, and carried on with it. It did not take off the pressure (Anons begging, pleading and taunting went straight to the bin), but it gave me time to start looking.
It took me exactly two minutes and a half to find the Irish company's name and registration number, as visible and published on the FMN gin webpage (https://www.forgetmenot.com/ and always, always read the small print).
So long for "not accessible to fans", BS Anon:
Next stop, the Irish Company Registration Office's website (https://core.cro.ie/), where things went impeccably smooth. FMN Drinks is an Irish company, registered as "Limited", which would translate as Public Limited Company (plc) in the UK:
Getting more data required a paid search and I stopped to ponder. Really did. Price was a trifle, but that was not really my problem. So I sat on it during the night: it is something I always do when I find myself uneasy or unsure about something.
By noon today, local time, I mumbled "oh, what the hell", crossed myself and pushed send:
It took 15 minutes to get five of the documents and two more hours and 45 minutes to get the Letter of Status, certified by a living, breathing Irish public servant in that inbox:
So (in)famous Shamrock Anon, here is my answer to you:
If you think a company specialized in the distilling and rectifying of spirits, with 100 (one hundred) issued shares, worth 1 euro each and with a zero euro declared account balance since last December is proof of capitalist world domination, you are an idiot, Anon. You lured me down that rabbit hole with the preposterous idea that C was not a part of this PO box company - which she is, as one of its four appointed Directors - to try and prove shippers are stupid. Which we aren't.
At face value, this is nothing to write home about. But I said yesterday the devil is in the details and was not disappointed, because you clearly are sloppy (again?) Anon and boy, you do have an untrained eye. It's almost like me when prompted to read somebody's blood test results, you know?
I am now faced with a dilemma: I either buy a cork board, thread and pins and start a trip to Cuckooland, trying to navigate my way across trademarks and trails of companies, and such other niceties that are boring as death. Or, I look at this completely uncalled for embarrassment of riches and let the dots connect themselves, in time.
I always steered my course according to this French proverb: dans le doute, s'abstenir. When in doubt, do nothing. Making sense of a document posted on a real estate company website is one thing. Publishing such documents, which are readily available for the private use of anyone with a credit card, and prematurely discussing them is a personal red line I am not willing to cross.
It would be pushing an agenda and, especially right now (*promo*), writing the script. Circus might be in town, but I am not one of the clowns.
Oh, and Anon: a company is an evolving entity people get into, then get out of and even maybe get back to, at some point in time. A business project is by no means any sort of evidence of relationship/marital status.
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I, an uncultured American who did not have the chance to actually keep up with Eurovision this year, have just spent several hours attempting to educate myself on the current state of the contest exclusively through tumblr’s “Eurovision” and “esc” tags.
Here is what I have learned:
Pussy
And salads, it’s part of a balanced diet
Norwegian wolves like bananas or something
You’ve heard of hot girl summer now get ready for ballad song spring
Are you actually in Eurovision if there isn’t some choreographed bumping and grinding
Okay but like are their costumes supposed to be wolves? Bananas with teeth? Did a wolf get knocked up by a banana? I have so many questions
I am not 100% certain of the name of the mad lad from Ukraine who was dancing like that but my god he can get it
Italy and Spain are upset with each other? I think? Unclear. I saw a lot of mentions of Italy and very little elaboration.
The final is apparently going to be boring because the censors are all cowards
There is a not-insignificant push to get the crowd to scream “pussy” during the final to protest Latvia’s ouster, they’re right and they should all say it very loudly
Okay but I’m hung up on this wolf banana thing. Like it’s sexual, right? Is it? Am I just too deep in the internet? I literally cannot tell, I just see these dudes in yellow lycra with little foam teeth pasted on what the hell am I suppose to do with that
Wait shit if it’s not supposed to be sexual I sound like a pervert MOVING ON
Turquoise carpet is the girl they tell Met Gala not to worry about
I do not know what the juries look like but I’m imagining a panel just. A supervillain-scale conference room table full of balding old white men with identically depressing briefcases
Obligatory dragging Britain through the mud
Interestingly most of the UK roasting posts I saw were written by Brits, further reinforcing my theory that you all have a humiliation kink
Okay but like, regardless of whether or not it’s meant to be inherently sexual, are the banana wolves furries? They have no fur. But like not all furies are actually furry, you know?
There is a full on “avenge Latvia” movement to establish their right to say “pussy” on international television and honestly it’s one of the more unifying and inspiring moments I’ve seen in Eurovision in a few years
Still not sure what the deal with Italy or Spain is, help
I have not been able to determine who this dude is with the plants all in his beard but I want to see his Pinterest board
Okay but seriously though, is this what happens when you give furries acid?? Acid, Adobe aftereffects and lycra????
The “cat with salad meme” sequel exceeds expectations
Like a good reality tv programme, the Eurovision-through-the-eyes-of-tumblr binging experience makes me feel like I’ve wasted several hours of my lifespan but leaves me hungry for more
#eurovison song contest#eurovison 2022#esc22#unsolicited thoughts from an American#y’all aren’t doing great per se but carry on sweetie you do you#pour one out for Latvia#esc#eurovision
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https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1413094475/
A customisable A6 greeting card featuring my hobbity watercolour painting and calligraphy on the front.
A warm golden door, beautifully textured (and 100% recycled) card, and a blank interior make this the perfect gift for book and fantasy lovers, whatever the occasion! A6 brown kraft envelope included.
You can also choose to have a custom message handwritten inside in a familiar rustic script. Just drop your message in the customisation box, and my trusty pen and I will do the rest! Swipe through the photos to see an example.
Want me to send the filled-in card directly to the recipient? Pop their address in the delivery address section, and remember to mark your order as a gift! I'll seal the envelope, write the recipient name on it, and post it directly to their address (inside a second, board-backed envelope so it doesn't bend in the mail).
Dimensions: A6 (105 x 148.5 mm) when folded. 300 gsm.
Materials: Card that is 100% recycled, FSC-certified, carbon-balanced, and fully recyclable. Made with modern Elemental Chlorine free processes, eliminating toxins in wastewater and also helping to preserve the pulp for onward recycling.
Envelope made of brown kraft paper.
#lotr#lord of the rings#hobbit#lord of the rings art#lotr art#lotr fanart#hobbit art#hobbit fanart#lotr merch#hobbit hole#bilbo baggins#frodo baggins#artists on tumblr#bookish#cottagecore art#hobbit lettering#shop update
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Blackout duology by Kit Mallory
(Blackout, Sparks)
After the Board came to power the world changed the way a hunter stalks its prey: all paranoia and imagined flickers of shadow, so that while you were being torn to pieces you were still wondering whether you were overreacting.
For 16-year-old Skyler, fear is a way of life. For three years, since the Wall split the UK in two, her survival as an illegal Northern refugee in the South has been a perilous balancing act between staying in the shadows and clinging to her reputation as the South's best hacker.
Fellow refugee Mackenzie is a ghost from her past she'd rather ignore. But when their paths collide unexpectedly, Skyler sees an opportunity to exact revenge on the brutal regime that destroyed her home and family - even if it means she goes down with them.
Forced, with extreme reluctance, on the run together, Skyler and Mackenzie, along with enigmatic contract killer Angel, must find a way to outrun not only the Board and the South's most sadistic crime lord, but their own personal demons. If they can manage to not end up murdering each other in the process, that'll be a bonus.
But more is at stake than any of them realise. And Skyler, who has long believed she has nothing left to lose, is about to discover just how wrong she is.
Genres: dystopian, romance
Order from Blackwell's and get free worldwide shipping! (1, 2)
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there was some post going around on here by someone from the uk (of course) about class, and how that distinction can be fuzzy because it also refers to nobility titles, and someone doesn't necessarily need to be rich to hold one. and like, with all due respect, i think they have it backwards.
class is definitely something that transcends bank balance, but this isn't a point that people are good at articulating. when people complain about out of touch elites, they sort of orbit this point but never get close enough to really stick the knife in. but there's a cultural element to it as well, that shows itself subtly through things like mannerisms, language, attitudes about health and money, amongst other things. i think the best attempt i've seen to analyze this was in "dream hoarders" by richard reeves, but even then, i couldn't help but feel he was leaving a few things unaddressed.
we've all heard countless stories of people who grew up in poverty, won a lottery jackpot, and ended up worse off after blowing the money on insanely dumb things. this is a huge contributing factor as to why that's so common.
this is going to sound like a dumb example, but baby names are a huge one for this. there are obviously some carve-outs here (namely, mormons. mormons name their kids weird shit across the board.) but broadly speaking, julia and oliver probably are signed up for piano lessons, and branley and mklaynie probably have a pit bull chained in the back of the yard and holy shit when was the last time your parents fed that guy.
another one: souping up your car with useless aesthetic upgrades is when you have disposable income, but not "class".
or how prestigious universities spend as much time educating you in how to navigate upper class spaces as they do teaching your actual major subject.
it's hard to really talk about this because it comes up in weird ways, and it's one of those things that you know without knowing how. money helps in terms of access, but it's no promise.
#hasan piker really sticks out to me as an example of someone with a ton of money but no class#wearing gaudy ass jewelry on your private jet to burning man is just a very elevated way of being trashy
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What I absolutely love about JimmySea together is their lack of power imbalance. Most couples in BL have a strong uke/seme dynamic expressed through physicality, mannerisms, and character details - not my favourite trope, though it can be done well (EarthMix my beloved). But Jimmy and Sea are a rare couple that seem equally balanced across the board. I really enjoyed how fresh that felt in Vice Versa but it's a stroke of genius using them here when their characters are both so powerfully angry at life. It's unstoppable force meeting immovable object.
#last twilight#gemfourth have this quality too#i wonder if thats why p'aof chose these two pairs for stories about disability#to avoid infantilising or matrying the disabled characters#jimmysea
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Hi, You mentioned you liked the Tent scene in the DH movie which is very rare for Romione fans and book fans… and so I’m curious if there’s other things you like from the films? I would love to know
me fighting for my life in hinny/romione jail after saying i really like the tent scene
Ok just in defence of the tent scene, which I love for so many reasons in a film series I broadly feel ambivalent about... I love that how plays with the idea of the characters just being kids getting a moment to piss about in a tent with the radio on, while the war rages around them (the song is O Children for a reason, and the fact that the train imagery runs throughout the lyrics... chef's kiss). I think it's a thoughtful twist on that line from DH about them being "three teenagers in a tent whose only achievement was not, yet, to be dead", playing with the teenageness of it all. I also really like how it steps out of being a HP film and plays both with a change of pace but also different forms of media - like, if you're converting something from one form to another (in this case, from a book to a film), you can and should think about what you can do in movies that you can't do in books, and music is so important in that. And I actually really love at the end where movie!Harry and Hermione look at each other and something seems to hang in the balance - I think it works as a bit of a wink and a nod to the audience expectations, but I love that they both turn away from it, because to the two characters there’s nothing of that between them, just deep love and ease with another person that they treasure and are grateful for. And then the song ends, and it’s back to the worry, three minutes of forgetting and back to the hours and hours of waiting and worrying. And although I don't really think of the movie characters as the characters, I do think it works as a way to render a dynamic in book!Harry and Hermione’s relationship by DH, which does have this intimacy, tenderness, and these gorgeous little twinge moments of physical affection:
She hesitated, but recognised the dismissal. She picked up the book and then walked back past him into the tent, but as she did so, she brushed the top of his head lightly with her hand. He closed his eyes at her touch, and hated himself for wishing that what she said was true: that Dumbledore had really cared.
Overall, though, I really don't love the films. I absolutely enjoy rewatching them with friends as a nostalgic relic of my childhood, yes I will re-enact the PS/SS chess scene on request, but I don't think as a series they're very strong, either as an adaptation or as a standalone body of work. My favourite film is probably GoF, because I think it just gets the vibe right: it nails the series shift that happens in book four, in that it delivers boarding school caper vibes immaculately, but then also really nails the political/courtroom scenes (the Barty Crouch Jr trial scene holds up as iconic, oh my god!) and the truly terrifying graveyard scene and the tragedy/agony of the aftermath. But in general I don't think the films are hugely well done, and I think giving David Yates films five through eight was a huge mistake (the man just turns the lights down to show that everything is getting dark and miserable, and directs weak, mannered performances from his actors in scenes that are poorly cut and edited. I will die on this hill). If JKR weren't set to make bank that she's going to pump into toxic TERF lobbying in Scottish/UK politics I'd be excited for the HBO series. Since the films were made we've seen how long-form series television can really be a wonderful medium for delivering quality adaptations and is where some of the most exciting new IP has been coming out of for the past few years, so there's such rich creative energy in that space that could deliver a really quality adaptation. But she is... so I am not!
Other things I like from the films that aren't in the books, after a lot of thought lol:
Burning the Burrow scene — it happened in the wrong film (the Burrow probably was attacked during DH, after Ron is revealed to be travelling with Harry at Malfoy Manor), but I think it’s extremely atmospheric, really chilling and beautiful (the reeds! the water! obsessed) Also it’s basically the best/most bearable Hinny moment in the wasteland of film Hinny........ but I digress
The crackling radio scenes from DH 1 (borrowed these heavily for inspo for Beasts, I love them so much)
#justice for the tent scene#justice for the burrow burning scene#and injustice for everything else#thank you anon!#also thank you so much if you have sent me an ask this week#i have an irl deadline early next week so am behind on writing and replying but i promise to try and get to the asks as soon as i can!
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I have been having ✨A Time✨ recently, both writing and personally, so my sharing today is a 🔥Hot Mess🔥 (much like my brain rn). Feel free to skip if you have no patience for my rambling.
But first, thank you for the tags today @fatalfangirl @j-nipper-95 and Wednesday @palimpsessed @artsyunderstudy @forabeatofadrum @ivelovedhimthroughworse @chen-chen-chen-again-chen
Adding just a few tags today because I don’t want to burden too many people with my word vomit @cutestkilla @captain-aralias @shrekgogurt @ebbpettier @whogaveyoupermission @aristocratic-otter @facewithoutheart @raenestee @thewholelemon @hushed-chorus 😘
On to said rambling. Really, truly. Last chance to back out from delving into Writerly Indecision Hour. You have been warned. Below the cut for length:
Ok! I have mostly been trying to get chapter 6 of Depth of Reason up and running. I know what I want the bulk of the chapter to be about, but I have been having trouble writing the start and getting them to that point. I have two separate documents going, one with 1k, the other with 2k, and both of them feel like they aren’t quite how I want to start. Why don’t I just jump into the parts I want to write and go back to do the start later, you might ask? Well, for better or worse, I usually have to write in a linear fashion and writing scenes out of order rarely work for me.
So! My plan was to start with Simon and Baz out to lunch with Penny, getting some legal advice on how best to take on the Coven. My first attempt had a some Simon/Penny banter as they walked to the restaurant, as I wanted to toggle back to their relationship, and checking in on Penny’s pregnancy. Here’s a bit:
“Are you feeling okay?”
She sighs. “Yes, just a side ache. My body has become far less efficient these days. I hate it.”
“You’re growing a human from scratch. I’d say your body has become far more efficient than it’s ever going to be in your life.”
She shakes her head.
“I don’t know how my mother did this five times. I’m barely halfway through this pregnancy and I’m already tired of getting winded going up a flight of stairs and getting heartburn any time I eat something spicy.”
“Maybe your mum just really had it bad for your dad.” I waggle my eyebrows at her.
Penny groans and laughs at that. “Please stop, you’re making it worse.”
Not bad, but I got stuck a little further down once they got to the restaurant with Baz. Basically, I wanted some tension with Penny not fully on board with how Simon has been handling things and taking it out on Baz. But then I got stuck on how I wanted said tension to go. So then I started another document getting straight into the legal advice. Here is a bit of that:
“That fact of the matter is, Baz broke the law simply by existing as an unregistered vampire,” Penny continues. “According to the Dark Creature Management Code of 2018, any individuals who did not voluntarily come forward and self register within 90 days of either their birth or their turning, depending on the type of creature, was in violation of said code and would be subject to the legal ramifications set forth under—”
“Penny,” I stop her. “We already know all of that. You don’t have to read us the whole law.”
Sigh. This bit gets tricky, too. Basically, I need to lay out what their plan of attack is and how they are going to take on The System. I need to strike a balance between giving the reader enough legal background without it being a snooze fest. (Cue Simon trying to speed her through the legalese to get to the crux of what they need to do.) I started this bit with having Penny compare the World of Mages’ judicial system to the UK at large, assuming it was much like what we have in the US. Upon further research…it is not. And my ability to understand and parse out this differences is limited. Therefore, I am going to have to take out some of these explanations and just lean heavily on my made up WOM system for this fic. Which led to this (slightly aggressive) note to myself in the middle of a scene:
DO I SHORTEN THIS WHOLE THING AS MORE OF A FLASHBACK AND GET US THROUGH THE ADVICE AND THROUGH PENNY DOING SOME SORT OF DONT FUCK THINGS UP FOR SIMON THING TO BAZ SO THAT WE CAN MOVE THE STORY TO THEM GOING TO WATFORD FOR CHARACTER WITNESSES?????
the Watford scene is what I wanted this chapter to really be about. The other stuff is just the lead in to get there. But some of it really is important.
This writing struggle is compounded by the fact that I broke my toe this week, had my car brake down, and I’m in the middle of report card and parent conference season at school. Plus dealing with all of my other obligations with family and such while limping slowly about. Anyways! If you read this far I love you and appreciate your interest in my struggle. 😅 I genuinely enjoy reading posts like this about other writer’s processes and road blocks, because it makes me feel like I’m in good company when the words don’t just flow with ease. If it feels like the muses have temporarily abandoned you, believe me, I get it! Here’s to hoping they bless us again soon. 💛
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Miles C. Peyote and Howie Thetaxi
(I’ve already made an information post like this, but said post is pretty long; in fact, it’ll just get longer and more expansive as I develop new characters and stories for [The Future Mob Project]. And I’m worried that the sheer length will make readers lose interest when they click on a link to look for a specific character. So, I’ll be making separate information pages for each character while still maintaining the all-inclusive post. Got it? Good.)
Who They’re Based Off Of: Lewis Dawkins (Dawko) and Ryan (8-BitRyan), respectively.
Their Methods of Work: When your reputation precedes you from all the way across the pond, you’ve definitely done something right! (Unless that was never your intent, in which case you’ve done something horribly, horribly wrong.) Remember the board game Mouse Trap? Well, Miles probably played it a few too many times in his youth, if the booby traps he sets up nowadays are anything to go by. Whether the goal is to kill or simply capture someone, his designs never fail to be. . .elaborate. Howie, meanwhile, doubles as a mechanic and driver. From ditching cops to running enemies off the road, he has more than enough skill to make professional racers envious. Never, NEVER forget the importance of seatbelts if you’re getting into a car with him. (Also, never put your feet on the dash. It’s rude.)
Red Attire: For Miles, a pair of leather boots (Oxblood). For Howie, a pair of gauge earrings (Carnelian)
Notes:
These two got their start in The Marble Hummingbirds, a different mob based in the UK that has had a strong alliance with The Pentas Family for years now. As part of standard underground affairs, Miles and Howie volunteered to relocate to the United States and work more closely with Murdock and the others. The adjustment was a bit difficult (especially for Howie), but they both understand that it makes several aspects of business more efficient. They both retain a good balance of loyalty between their original crew and their new one.
Miles is selective when it comes to speaking. He’ll talk freely when he’s among people he trusts or is in a place that he’s deemed safe/comfortable, but when he’s out in public, he’s just. . .very quiet. He’ll still talk a little for the sake of politeness or formality, but only a little. If an area is open or unfamiliar, he’ll usually prefer to use body language and the like. (This does absolutely NOT stop him from cackling like a maniac over his traps, but again, that usually takes place in more secluded, secretive areas.)
Howie has no qualms about reckless driving. Swerving, speeding, staging accidents; he can do it all without batting an eye. Whatever it takes to get himself and his buddies (plus their cargo) from Point A to Point B without getting stopped or caught. Keep in mind, this mindset only applies to his personal driving. When he’s casually out and about, he can’t stand other drivers who tailgate, block lanes, cut others off, etc. If you act rude toward him in traffic, he can and will make a side-quest out of finding a way to get back at you. And yes, this extends to when he’s on the job. It’s not at all uncommon for him to go back and forth between chatting with his passengers and yelling at idiots on the road in the middle of a high-stakes-chase.
Miles has a habit of collecting plushies; especially odd-looking ones. (For example: the creepy-yet-cute stuff you might find on Etsy.) But his plushies aren’t just for aesthetic or decoration—they serve the purpose of secretism. He’s modified each and every one of them to be soft little storage units. Some have well-hidden zippers in their backs, while others have their heads function as the lids to jars stuffed inside their stomachs. Miles uses this strategy to hide valuables, such as varying sums of money or the odd piece of jewelry taken from a target.
Howie is miraculously conscious of animals on the road. That’s one of few exceptions to his typical stance on get-away-driving. He'll always make sure to avoid hitting cats, dogs, raccoons, deer. . .or squirrels. As a matter of fact, one squirrel that he managed to spare back in the day seems to have pledged a life-debt to him. Seriously, he met this squirrel while he was still working in the UK, and by now it’s followed him to the US. Wherever Howie is, the squirrel always seems to be somewhere in the background, just watching and waiting. Howie doesn’t see this squirrel as a pet, but he doesn’t have a problem with its presence (even though he’s somewhat unnerved by it).
Along with all the get-away driving stuff, Howie has helped The Pentas Family to form its very own chop-shop. Whenever cars are stolen from targets or enemies, Howie will be there to dismantle or sabotage said cars. Legitimate parts are sold, and certain jobs involve filling a vehicle with counterfeit parts in order to frame its owner.
Ever since relocating, both Miles and Howie live out of The Five Seasons, a hotel near the Cove Port Inlet’s city entrance. The building is connected to the abandoned subway tunnels, and the duo rotates between sharing the hidden den; Miles will use it to build/test his traps, and Howie will use it simply to store/tamper with various car parts. The hotel just so happens to be right across the street from the car repair garage (Oh, For God’s Brake!) that Howie uses for his day-job.
Current Stories: [TBA]
@sammys-magical-au
#my writing#miles c. peyote#lewis dawkins#dawko#dawko egos#howie thetaxi#8-bitryan#8-bit egos#my fan egos#fanmade egos#the pentas family#[the future mob project]
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"Instead of using these business connections to, you know, get businesses on board to fund the faltering childcare and educational systems in the UK, Kate is just going to use the Business Taskforce for Early Childhood to… raise awareness for the importance of all of the child-development programs being slashed in real time." EXACTLY. That's the problem with how KP is thinking. The meeting is not helping anyone but I feel like they know that and simply don't care. They goal is to look busy.
It blows my mind how even after the negative response to her last "project," they still haven't come up with anything besides bringing awareness to the early years. I don't understand how her little event today is going to do shit. Are you lobbing for private companies to invest in more resources for parents? Lobbying for better family leave or better work-life balance? Higher pay so parents can better provide for their kids? No. She's still just "bringing awareness." As you said, it's busy work. Nothing more.
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Everything Everything on how road-rage icon Ronnie Pickering and late stage capitalism inspired their new album
'It's a state of the nation address that reflects the human cost and the psychological cost of a lot of things that we live underneath,' says frontman Jonathan Higgs.
By Nick Reilly on Rolling Stone
As Everything Everything gear up to release their new album Mountainhead, the Manchester group have told Rolling Stone UK how it’s a state-of-the-nation record that takes unlikely inspiration from, err, Ronnie Pickering.
Yes, you heard that correctly. The Hull man who went viral after screaming ‘D’YER KNOW OOO I AM?’ in a bout of road rage back in 2014 has proved to be an influence on ‘The End Of The Contender’ – one of the album’s standout tracks.
“It’s not representative of the whole album, but it *is* in there,” frontman Jonathan Higgs tells Rolling Stone UK.
“I’ve definitely always been drawn to trying to write about outsiders and groups of people that have been dropped by wider society, for want of a better word. Ronnie was a good example of that, because it was an extremely amusing moment, but the more I looked into it I thought it was quite a poignant tale of where men of a certain age found themselves in the early 2010s. His sort of impotent rage was a good emblem of that.”
While Pickering isn’t directly named and instead acts as subtle influence, Higgs says that wasn’t *always* the case.
“There was a previous song where the chorus was literally I’M RONNIE PICKERING over and over, but the guys weren’t quite so keen on that one! This is more of a subtle way around the subject.”
But it does, however, feed into the overarching narrative of their new record.
“It’s a sort of thinly veiled, satirical look at the current state of late stage capitalism and what it’s like to live in the West and, more specifically, the UK after 15 years of Tory rule,” Higgs explains.
“It’s a state of the nation address that reflects the human cost and the psychological cost of a lot of things that we live underneath. It really explores that, rather than going into the nuts and bolts of the system.”
It’s a hifalutin concept typical of the band who, on their last album Raw Data Feel, used AI software to create some of the record’s lyrics, after feeding it with four eclectic sources of literature – including the terms and conditions of LinkedIn and 100,000 comments from the annals of contentious message-board site 4Chan.
This time around, they say that some of the record’s darkness comes from analysing the ill-fated 44 day reign of Liz Truss as Prime Minister.
“It’s like a trope of Greek drama isn’t it?,” explains keyboardist and bassist Jeremy Pritchard.
“It’s Hubris, going all the way to the top spot, but you can’t stay there. That itself is always going to be interesting isn’t it?”
Politics aside however, it’s a record that has the band’s unmistakeable unpredictability and art-pop spirit coursing through its veins.
“In the last two records, we’ve tried – with increasing success – to use the signature aspect of John’s voice more sparingly,” explains Pritchard.
“That means it has more power and more poignance when it is deployed.”
And seven albums into their career, they’re not disappearing anytime soon.
“There’s absolutely no reason we’d split up,” says Higgs.
“We’re doing the best job in the world, and we like each other and people seem to like what we do. There’s no pressure on us to destroy ourselves. We think we’re doing good stuff and we’re always excited about doing more stuff.”
Or, as with most things in life, there’s a Simpsons analogy at hand…
“There’s that episode where Mr Burns is diagnosed as having every illness. A perfect balance which has meant that he’s lived to the age of 104,” says Pritchard.
And in a way, I think there’s something like that going on with us….
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Waypoints, Take 1: POV Complete Outsider
A little something, before we begin. In the history of this fandom, S's book was a critical juncture point. To explain my speculations and findings, it felt appropriate and fun to split it in two parts: the first, written from the POV of a complete outsider who happens to stumble upon Waypoints. The second would be a shipper's view, simply because this is who I am. Under no circumstances should it be understood that I recently took a flight to Bangkok, as I will immediately tell you (I wish I had!). Last time I used this rhetorical trick it went in flames, and I had to explain myself at length: you have been warned. Here goes and I apologize already - this is going to be LONG:
Hi, I am Sgian-Dubh and I have just boarded the LHR-BKK twelve -hour flight, after four years of forced COVID abstinence. I am brimming with anticipation for five o'clock tea at the Mandarin Oriental's Author Lounge, the speedboat transfers on the Chao Phraya and the first real Thai mango sticky rice.
Lo and behold, somebody has forgotten a book in the pocket in front of my seat, undetected by the cleaning ladies. It is written by a certain Sam Heughan. I have no idea who that guy is, but I am quickly informed about its topic: My Scottish Journey.
Ok. A travel book. Favorite genre. This guy is no Pico Iyer. No Robert Byron. And certainly no Freya Stark. But I've got roughly ten hours to kill: where's the harm?
The cover intrigues me. Not my type, but a very good-looking gentleman, with a rather determined, almost stern attitude and a dram of whisky in his left hand. Is he a unicorn entrepreneur? An inventor? The next UK astronaut? Impossible to tell. But hey, never judge a book by its cover.
It quickly becomes apparent that Heughan is the male lead in that lengthy Outlander series of already cult-ish reputation, that my mother watches with gusto ("call me in half an hour, I am watching The Wedding": might I add, for the 455th time in documented history) and The Guardian TV critic calls raunchy.
Six hours later, roughly by the second round of refreshments, I have questions.
The beginning is peculiar. This guy has a busy-busy-busy life and lives in a large country house all by himself, with a hissing coffee machine he just bought. There is something havishamesque about this premise, clashing with the self-assured, conqueror pose on the cover:
But there is hope: a decision is made on the spur of the moment to skedaddle and walk the 96 mile West Highland Way, rather than brood in front of the telly with Chinese delivery food and more alcohol, Bridget Jones style. Fair enough. Adequate equipment is immediately acquired in a frenzy and outside it is nasty raining. The new tent is mounted and dismounted in the living-room (who does this? who eats scrambled eggs with ketchup?).
Pitter-patter. And more pitter-patter. Damp, but heartwarming overnight stops in cozy hotels along the way and short conversations in Halloween-themed bars, surrounded by Highland zombies and banshees. Parritch and grit. The harsh encounter with homelessness along the way prompts the Good Samaritan reflex:
More pitter-patter. Entwined with the self-reliant feat, we start to follow a parallel trail to the narrator's past, by far the most interesting part of the book. Challenging beginnings, in a single parent family surrounded by love and dignified penury. A real shyness due to truly heartbreaking, unfairly absurd, almost debilitating circumstances:
Details like the above quickly grab the reader's attention, and how could they not? There is a lot of sensibility in there, rather aptly balanced with a whiff of Dickensian morality (stay true to your self) and of course, with one of the favorite Victorian refrains: play up, play up and play the game. Obstacles are patiently conquered with uncommon resilience and a true stubbornness, but for a very long time, life is a haphazard succession of opportunities and rebukes.
For such a good-looking man, women are sparse and far between. Ae fond kiss and then we sever at 10. Stage partners. A stage production assistant. The one who didn't last more than one week once moved in together. No explanation is provided and we sense this is an uneasy topic. I wouldn't insist, as a casual reader, but my curiosity is piqued.
At this point in time, breakfast is served. I have long lost track of the zip-a-dee-doo-dah trekking part of the book, involving a sulking, but nice bearded guy and his wife, chance brief encounters and mushrooms. But the Underdog Tale surely got my attention, even if we spend an extravagant amount of time between the London neo-slums and the glitter of Tinseltown: skipping to the essential, it eventually paid off.
With instant fame comes exposure and the lottery winner syndrome. What to do. How to cope. Women multiply as by magic, but only one is singled out and discussed in a strange, contrived, almost lackadaisical manner:
If this made me, the assumed Complete Outsider, stop in my tracks and scratch my head, I can only imagine what would happen to these people's fans. Why address folklore and conflated nonsense, at all? Why give space to hearsay? Why "it", when it should logically be "them"? Why the ambiguity? Why the uneasiness, spinning like floating wood in a sea of positivity? Why worry about that, when you drum the march of success and explain your bachelorhood by an unsolved Oedipus complex, thwarting any potential pairing?
I sip the horrible airline drip coffee and I ask:
Who is Caitriona to you, Mister Heughan?
You wrote a +150 pages long book beating around this bush. There are no such things. You are either life-long friends and this is a non-existent topic, or you are lying to yourself, lying to your readers and hiding in plain sight.
Time to disembark. I am keeping the book. I am not buying the whisky (naïve product placement on top). But hell I am going to watch that series on Netflix!
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Chess - 1990 Sydney version
Tumblr user fascinating-yarn sent me a nice ask with some pointers about other versions of Chess to check out, so I have now watched one! This one exists as a bootleg on YouTube, in pretty terrible quality but with subtitles, which is the only reason I could make out any of the lyrics/dialogue, so many thanks to whichever fandom angels provided that.
This version is very different from London/Chess in Concert, totally rearranged (but still with book and lyrics by Tim Rice). There's only one chess tournament, set in Bangkok, between Freddie and Anatoly; Anatoly just applies for UK citizenship in the middle of it. The pacing definitely works out way better here - the first chess match starts very early (compare to Chess in Concert where it's some 35 minutes in), with some of the other stuff like "The Merchandisers" interleaved with it instead of dragging out the lead-up with it. The Arbiter matters a bit more, Svetlana gets a bit more focus since she's there with Anatoly from the start and expresses concern about Anatoly's obsession with winning the match affecting their relationship, Florence gets some new lines that give her a bit more depth.
The romance between Florence and Anatoly doesn't really make me care about it any more here - if anything it's even clumsier, since they sort of start to dance early in "Mountain Duet" for what feels like no reason at all, and Anatoly seemingly defects the actual day after meeting her just that once, while his wife is literally there, which just feels like a bizarre dick move. But also it feels like this production doesn't want us to care quite as much - I think it's basically down to how it doesn't have the whole "One More Opponent"/"You and I" scene, which tips the balance so that Florence and Anatoly's relationship feels less like an emotional throughline we ought to be invested in and more like just one of the facts of the plot. So in some ways it works better, even though I'm still deeply uninvested.
The ending is considerably changed. "The Soviet Machine" features Molokov explaining to his cronies that they're in a win-win situation (I like how well that works with the "Not one move that won't improve our nation's chances" lyric), where regardless of the outcome of the match the Soviet Union can consider it a victory now that Anatoly has defected, but the ideal outcome for them would be if Anatoly doesn't show up for the match at all and comes crawling back to Moscow. So that's the outcome that Molokov and Walter are pushing for, and Florence really does try to persuade Anatoly to ditch the match so that she can get her father back, which he then ultimately ignores.
"Endgame" itself then plays out very differently. In the London/Chess in Concert version, Florence and Svetlana's voices both argue fiercely that Anatoly ought to throw the match and berate him for not doing so while he argues back. This one has the chorus shaming him for not showing up initially, until he does appear; then during the match Florence and Svetlana sing one of their original verses - only for Anatoly to have a moment where he turns away from the board and sings:
Then I think of her
Her and her father
What would she prefer?
I know I'd rather
Never win again than feel that I'd betrayed them
All in all Anatoly's inner conflict during the game is quite different - it's all about deciding on the bit where he will go back to the Soviet Union afterwards, sacrificing his chance to actually make his defection reality, while he's already going for winning the game as soon as he shows up, and during the game he thinks about how he doesn't want to betray Florence instead of arguing with her view on it.
That's not really a bad change - in a way it feels more straightforwardly coherent, compared to the London/Chess in Concert version of him spending the song digging in his heels about winning the game and concluding Florence and Svetlana just want to control him and never understood him only to afterwards decide to give himself up for Florence's father anyway (I ultimately kind of like that progression because it's very like an agitated, distressed human under pressure, but it is somewhat abrupt). But I don't find myself liking this version of the endgame as much, perhaps mainly just because I don't find Anatoly very sympathetic in this version generally - we've cut out most of the bits with him being conflicted and distressed about the mind games being played with him, so he's just kind of there, cheating on his wife, being immediately smitten with Florence for some reason, defecting and sending her flowers in the same breath, and then eventually making this decision. I cared about him in Chess in Concert in a way I don't really here, even if I didn't care enough about the relationship.
And then, of course, Freddie here is entirely missing his arc. He's just an antagonist and that's all, "Pity the Child" is put as a petulant contemplation of how he's always been a winner that doesn't lead to anything or mean anything, no "Talking Chess" moment of any kind. As a result, this Freddie is not really very compelling at all to me, just kind of a boring misogynist asshole who is there and has a vague throwaway Freudian excuse but no real depth or development.
This version is more one for the women; Florence and Svetlana both get a somewhat better deal here overall, I think, which is nice. And again, in terms of structure and pacing it definitely does a very solid job of making it play out in a much tighter way without getting boring.
But for me personally, it didn't quite have the glue that really stuck in my brain about Chess in Concert - if I'd watched this version to begin with I probably would've shrugged and gone, "Eh, it was okay, didn't do too much for me, soundtrack had some nice bits I guess," and moved on, instead of writing three different posts and spending a couple of days putting together a recurring motif chart.
It's fascinating to compare and contrast, though. I'm already a nerd about revisions and adaptations of fiction so a work with a bunch of different versions all with their own different takes and strengths is very much a thing that's liable to nerdsnipe me. I will probably also watch the 1990 Long Beach version which also appears to exist on YouTube in fully captioned form (again, all of my respect and gratitude to the fandom angels who do stuff like caption things).
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