@thewolfruns / 031, in front of a suspicious pool of blood in an empty parking lot. / taher & andie!

there was something off about andie. taher didn't know when he noticed it, but once he did, he couldn't stop. she was a beautiful girl, cornsilk blonde and fawn-like legs. she smiled brightly and laughed appropriately in conversations at parties. she looked like the most regular, well-adjusted girl on the lunaire university campus. that was the only reason he even noticed that something was different about her: he spent a lot of his time looking at her. how, though she laughed and smiled when she was supposed to, it always seemed to take her a few seconds. like a computer lagging, she would almost (metaphorically) trip over herself, remembering just a few seconds too late to fix her face into whatever she was supposed to be expressing. it was actually kind of funny to taher, and when he walked past her in the halls or saw her in the cafeteria, he tried to make a mental note of how long it took her to go from a laconic, blank face to a happy, genial one.

he was a student, though. taher didn't have all day to be cataloguing andie's facial expressions, and only made a mental note of how she looked when he remembered to. stumbling across her in the parking lot of the science building in the middle of the night had been a total accident. taher didn't even have any science classes, but he had to walk around the building to get to the dorms on the west side of campus. he was also a tiny bit drunk. that's why, seeing her standing over a pool of blood, he had laughed disbelievingly. "yo, andie!" he called, a little unsteady on his feet as he approached her. "you, like, need a tampon or something?" taher chortled, drunkenly thinking he was the funniest man in the world at that moment. the gears started turning after a few seconds, "wait... that's a lot of blood, dude. did someone get murdered here?" he asked jokingly, a dumb grin on his face.

After looking over your list, I have a couple of names I think you should add: Jeremy Irvine, Stephen Huszar, Sean Depner, & Cole Vigue (Sorry, I watch a lot of Hallmark Channel). In the category "More than Likely Gay, But Never Coming Out Voluntarily:" Jeremy Renner, Adrian Grenier, and Chase Crawford. What do you think?

Yes to Jermy Irvine. I think he's gay. I also suspect Jeremy Renner is, but I'm not sure. Didn't he father a kid with a woman? Maybe he's bi idk. Adrian Grenier is most likely straight imo. Chace Crawford was outed like 10 years ago. I'm positive he's gay but I doubt he will ever come out. He's close to 40 now. I don't know who the other actors you mentioned are, sorry. I will definitely check them out though!

[ad_1] If 3D-printed houses are the way forward for the American neighborhood, then Austin simply hosted that neighborhood’s largest block social gathering but.  Icon, a building know-how firm specializing in 3D-printed houses, held an enormous presentation and demo on the Lengthy Middle for the Arts on the shores of Woman Chicken Lake. The corporate debuted a futuristic new printer at a reasonably star-studded occasion, a minimum of so far as building know-how bulletins go.  Adam Neumann and Bjarke Ingels watched the keynote presentation from the Dell Theater’s opera containers. “Entourage” star Adrian Grenier, who lives on an eco-friendly ranch in close by Bastrop, snuck in from a facet entrance to take a front-row seat simply earlier than the presentation started.  There was loads of native aptitude, too. Compass agent and Tesla fanatic Matt Holm parked a branded Cybertruck in entrance of the middle. Hotelier Liz Lambert and Ingels, who're working with Icon on 3D-printed tasks at El Cosmico resort in Marfa, chatted earlier than the present.  The ground and first mezzanine of the two,442-seat auditorium was packed. The principle attraction was the corporate’s new Phoenix printer, a 75-foot robotic arm that appears like a building crane with a big tattoo gun on the top.  “That is like our model of touchdown rockets,” Jason Ballard, Icon’s CEO, stated on stage. “There have been traders and board members that didn't imagine this was doable.” (Photograph: Joe Lovinger) Outdoors of its radically completely different look, the printer can be able to constructing two-story buildings as giant as 24,000 sq. toes. One human can function a number of printers at a time, and the Phoenix will be arrange at a job website in three hours.  Phoenix may print foundations and roof buildings, whereas the unique printer might solely do partitions.  The brand new printer permits Icon to print partitions for $25 per sq. foot, down from the $315 per sq. foot it price the corporate’s unique printer in 2018. It’s additionally a sign of sustained progress–down from the more moderen $45 per sq. foot price registered at its Wolf Ranch growth with Lennar.  This system at Woman Chicken Lake additionally featured different kinds of excessive hopes and severe cash. Icon introduced tens of hundreds of dollars in awards for younger architects who developed plans for low-cost houses utilizing Icon’s know-how as a part of a contest to develop homes for beneath $99,000. Regardless that the occasion was held at South by Southwest, the land of free merch, a desk hawked $35 t-shirts and $12 tote baggage.  Ballard stated the corporate’s goal is to make use of its know-how to chop the prices of housing growth, which is at the moment caught in what he calls the “housing doom loop.” As he described it, builders have to chop prices on design and high quality to make tasks pencil, inflicting governments to extend regulation, additional elevating prices. “Whilst housing is getting dearer, it’s getting worse,” Ballard stated. “You in some way need to make it price much less whereas on the similar time making it higher.” Outdoors the theater on a big garden, Icon arrange one of many Phoenix printers. Backed by Austin’s steel-and-glass skyline, the printer loomed over a wavy grey sculpture, displaying the forms of exact, undulating facades it will possibly churn out. It might be shipped out to a job website on a single truck. It might print a number of houses without delay. It had prompted severe applause from Adam Neumann.  For a second, it appeared just like the housing disaster had been solved.  Learn extra [ad_2] Supply hyperlink

Fancasts for Doe Eyes

There's a lot of choices for him .-.

First (and a favorite) is Adrian Gernier [this dude looks like a puppy]:

Harry Styles (before you stop scrolling let me explain. He has the eyes and can lowkey give the right face when you think of him like a kid, just how Shirley sees Doe Eyes) :

Also from the alias of Tanner Perez I feel like Doe Eyes can pass for having Spanish/Latino heritage so I have some PoC options too.

Oscar Issac: (Honestly found this one las minute but so happy I did!)

Adam Rodriguez:

There's so much more for Doe Eyes (I think I'm lowkey obsessed with him just like Leo) but I'll stop here lol

Meet My OC: Oliver Valentine

A/N: Of course I was going to use my OC card in the @openheartfanfics "Meet My MC" event to introduce him! If you thought Ethan was a protective husband, then you don't know Oliver Valentine, Casey's "evil" twin. Once again, I used the base template by @jamespotterthefirst. and I added some extra items to it.

~~*~~*~~

Oliver’s Bio

Full Name: Oliver Sean Valentine

Face Claim: Adrian Grenier

Nicknames: None

Birthday: December 3

Sexual orientation: Bisexual

Love Interest(s):  None at the moment, even though Casey insists that he should rekindle his relationship with his high school sweetheart, Emma.

Kids: None (yet)

Hair: Black

Eyes: Green

Height: 5'9"

Hometown: Abingdon, Virginia

Education: Lawyer / Duke University

Occupation: Freelance lawyer

Family: Maggie and Tom Valentine (parents, dead), Marie Smith (grandmother, dead), Casey Valentine (twin sister, alive)

Personal motto: “Every person deserves to be respected”

Background: Oliver and Casey grew up surrounded by love in a middle class family. His parents, Tom and Maggie, had been high school sweethearts and had been happily married for two years when the twins were born. After his parents died in a car accident, his grandma Marie took care of them for 20 years, until she passed away. He ows his popularity at high school not only to his good looks, but also to his sense of justice when it came to defend his peers, something he learned from his parents at a very young age.

Personality traits: Being raised together means that Oliver and Casey have a lot in common when it comes to their personalities. He is a noble guy who can't stand injustice. Since he was a kid he defended the weak and fiercely protected his sister. But whenever Casey avoids a conflict, he faces it. He is a very straight forward person, and he won't shut up if he has something to say. He has no filter when he is mad. This attitude causes that some people may not like him, but he couldn't care less about it. With Oliver, what you see is what you get.

On the relationship with his sister: The fact that they are twins made them have an unique bond. The fact that they lost their parents as such a young age only made that bond stronger. Casey is his best friend, and the only person in the world he knows he can openly talk about literally everything. She is also his biggest cheerleader, and the only one who had faith in him when he applied to law school. At first, he hated the idea of Casey leaving to Boston by herself. Now, he loves to see her being as happy as she deserves, even if that means sharing his sister with Ethan (lol). He truly aspires to have something like what she has in the future.

On his love life: Oliver is openly bisexual, and he has experienced with both men and women. However, when it comes to a serious relationship, he may be inclined to prefer girls, as his personal experiences have made him believe that girls tend to take commitment more seriously than guys. He won't admit it, but Casey knows his soulmate is Emma, his high school sweetheart. The only reason they broke up was because they were going to different universities and didn’t feel like having a long distance relationship after they graduated. But they've always remained friends, and they've kind of rekindled their romance in the past. Now they're both single and back in town. Time will tell.

On his parents accident: Their parents' accident hit Oliver and Casey differently. While Casey focused on healing (one of the reasons that led her to become a doctor), Oliver just wanted to have answers. That's why he went to law school. Despite living in a small town, he has always had this idea that "the Valentines' case" is kind of a taboo among older residents. People remember it, but no one talks about it. The fact that the case was closed because of lack of evidence (it was always said the responsible escaped and that they were never found, something that doesn't make sense at all, given the fact that the car crash was severe enough to kill his parents) doesn't help either. He feels the only way for him and Casey to find real peace is by finding out who did it. And he is determined to unveil the truth.

~~*~~*~~

10 Random Facts on Oliver

Oliver and Casey are one of those rare cases where one of the babies is born before midnight and the other one is born after midnight. So even though he legally was born one day before Casey, he's technically 10 minutes older than her (yes, their parents celebrated two birthdays on two different dates to keep them both happy).

He wasn't the most dedicated student, but he is incredibly smart. He was definitely one of those kids who didn't need to study a lot to get good grades.

Even though he knows Casey can defend herself, he may have helped her several times in high school without her noticing it. Even though Casey wasn’t at the bottom of the popularity list, the fact that Oliver was a popular kid may have helped her to be more respected by her peers.

He considers himself Casey's biggest fan, no matter what Ethan says. He has known her since she was literally an egg, and that's enough for him to win that discussion.

One of the reasons he became a lawyer is because he wanted to help all those people whose cases were closed with no answers. He knows how it feels because him and Casey have been trying to live with it, but he knows it’s hard sometimes. So he’d like for everyone to find the peace they deserve.

He likes writing and he is very talented. In fact, he may publish a novel someday. His grandma always thought that the biggest difference between him and Casey was how creative he was, so she always encouraged him to develop his artistic side.

After his parents' death, there was a time where he couldn’t express his emotions. Now, he has no problems telling how he feels (he'll always thank Emma for helping him overcome this), but he would never say ILY to another person without meaning it, he’s seen his sister going through hell because of some jerks, he wouldn’t forgive himself if he becomes one.

He loves kids and someday he'd like to have a bunch of them. But for now... damn! He can't wait for Casey and Ethan to come to their senses and to become parents so that he can become an uncle!

He has had a serious conversation with each and every one of Casey's boyfriends or potential boyfriends. The only conversation that ended up well was the one he had with Ethan. And nope, Casey doesn't know this conversation took place.

At first, Oliver didn't have the best opinion on Ethan. He thought he was an asshole and a coward for escaping to the Amazon and leaving his sister alone after all they had gone through (and yes, Oliver did tell Ethan this to his face during the chat mentioned above). His opinion only changed after he saw how much he cared about Casey during and after the incident (yes, he also told him this). Now he is sure that Ethan is the best thing that could have happened to his sister (and he made sure that Ethan knows it as well).

Tags: @adiehardfan @izzyourresidentlawyer

Hi the joe anon here. The reason I was asking was because I actually went on to two poc fc directories to see what fcs would be suitable and twice he came up. both times stating that he is biracial along with other fcs such as Adrian grenier. I don't appreciate the insinuation that I am white passing when I am actually finding a biracial character who are even more underused then poc's. You need to more clearer on races you require instead of bullying anons who are asking for advice.

As previously stated, it is the quantity of messages like yours that was distressing, not the content of them.

Anyone is always allowed to come to us with any questions regarding our rules, or fcs, or anything at all.

The problem begins when the only asks we get at all (and multiple per day) are asking whether a white-passing FC would be accepted here despite our ban on white fcs. Our goal here is to have characters from a variety of cultures and backgrounds with different experiences and points of view, which can't be done if everyone looks the same.

The reply to your question was addressed to everyone who sees it, and as that was made clear, we do not appreciate being accused of bullying. Feel free to come off of anon to talk about this privately.

- Molly & Em

How I Letterboxd #9: Julie Collette.

Christmas movie lover Julie Collette tells Jack Moulton all about her seasonal movie habits, the best big screen Santa Claus of all time, disability visibility in festive films, and some of the weirder holiday picks.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: when Letterboxd members turn to the Neverending Christmas List to help plan their Christmas movie viewing. Arrange it by highest rated, arrange it by newest release, or by popularity—any which way, there’s something for everyone, from corny TCM romances to obscure seasonal horrors.

Created six years ago by Canadian member Julie Collette, the list runs to more than 4,300 titles, and contains the word ‘Christmas’ 1,837 times at last count. Julie and her husband are die-hard Letterboxd fans, having allegedly used the platform every day for the past nine years. She’s logged every film she’s seen in theaters since 1996.

A message from John McClane in ‘Die Hard’ (1988).

What inspired your Neverending Christmas List? Can you please explain the minimum requirement for eligibility? My husband had told me about a list on Letterboxd of Every Horror Film Made from 1895–Present and that gave me the idea to start the neverending Christmas list. My eligibility rules are not strict at all. It can be a film that centers on or around Christmas time. Even New Year’s counts in my book—as long as there’s a moment in the film that has a Christmas song, a Christmas scene, or Christmas decorations. Die Hard is definitely a Christmas film. First of all, it takes place on Christmas Eve at an office Christmas party. There’s that great note that John McClane sends to Hans Gruber on a dead guy’s shirt: “Now I have a machine gun, ho-ho-ho.” Now that’s Christmas! There are a couple of titles that test my relaxed requirements. Examples would be Psycho—there are a few Christmas decorations at the beginning [and Bryan Fuller agrees]—and the documentary Beauty Day by Canadian director Jay Cheel, which has Christmas lights at the end.

And what percentage of the films have you seen? As of right now, I've watched 20 percent—that’s 882 of the 4,322 films on the list. I’ve got a lot of homework to do. Here’s a few hidden gems I recommend: Mon oncle Antoine, Holiday Affair, Remember the Night, Olivia, On the Twelfth Day…, Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas and One Christmas, which is Katherine Hepburn’s last role.

David Bowie and Bing Crosby sing ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ in ‘Bing Crosby’s Merrie Old Christmas’ (1977).

When does your Christmas movie viewing season start? I usually start mid-November to try to keep up with the TV rom-coms because they start to air even before Hallowe’en. This year on Hallowe’en night we rewatched The Night of the Hunter and I had forgotten that there was a sequence that was set at Christmas time. It was a perfect segue between Hallowe’en and Christmas, so I started November 1st. As far as how I pick what to watch, I go through my list and randomly pick some. I try to watch as many first-time watches and mix up the genres. But the closer I get to Christmas, the more I want to watch my favorites—for the most part I go with the flow. Christmas Day is usually a day of family time, but I try to sneak in one favorite if I can.

What was the first Christmas film that got you into all of this? I’ve always loved Christmas and growing up I watched the yearly airings of vintage Christmas cartoons and A Muppet Family Christmas. When Home Alone came out it was an instant obsession, then Home Alone 2: Lost in New York was just as good. Even now it’s our yearly tradition for my husband and I to watch the Home Alones while we decorate the Christmas tree.

If not Home Alone, what is your all-time favorite Christmas film? It’s a Wonderful Life is up there for me. Partly because growing up I watched it every Christmas Eve and kind of forced my dad to watch it with me. I think he secretly didn’t mind. As a kid, I didn’t dwell on the sad parts of the story, I just wanted to go to that candy shop and run in Bedford Falls like George in that beautiful thick fake snow. Now as an adult, I appreciate the story about a small town coming together to support a man at his lowest of lows more. Jimmy Stewart is amazing as George Bailey and we can all see ourselves at some point in his journey in the film. The chemistry and comedic timing between Stewart and Donna Reed is one of the best. Every time they sing ‘Auld Lang Syne’, I always get a bit misty-eyed.

メリークリスマス Japanese style, in ‘Tokyo Godfathers’ (2003).

What have you noticed about the ways in which Christmas films have changed over the years? In classic Christmas storytelling, there are a lot more religion-centered ones like The Bishop’s Wife and It’s a Wonderful Life. The ’80s and ’90s were about the blockbusters that the whole family could enjoy; Batman Returns, Home Alone, and The Santa Clause. The last twenty years have brought us a lot of different movies, but I do find that the start of the 2000s had a better crop of Christmas movies; Love Actually, Elf, Tokyo Godfathers, Far from Heaven, Bridget Jones’s Diary, About a Boy and so many more. The last decade has been saturated by the rom-coms of Hallmark, Lifetime and their imitators, but from the last five years, a few stand out that could be destined to become Christmas classics: Carol, Little Women and The Night Before.

The best, most rewatched Christmas stories tend to be remade. Do you have a classic Christmas story that you always love, no matter who’s telling it? Hands down Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. From my favorite—Scrooge—to The Muppet Christmas Carol, to Scrooged. Growing up, I had the book of Mickey’s Christmas Carol and I loved the cartoon adaptation. I love to see the different actors’ excitement and elation at the end when Scrooge wakes up on Christmas Day. My ultimate favorite is Alistair Sim in 1951’s Scrooge. He’s so jubilant asking the maid what day it is and wishing himself Merry Christmas in the mirror. It’s a bit darker than others. When I was a kid, the intro with Jacob Marley and the build-up of the chains scared me, but I couldn’t stop watching. Patrick Stewart’s Ebenezer [in the 1999 TV movie] is also great for his relief that he survived the journey through time. What an actor! An honorable mention to The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old Summertime and You’ve Got Mail, which are all based on [the 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie by Miklós László].

A Christmas Treat in ‘Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square’ (2020).

Treat Williams stars in not one but two of this season’s films (who knew he could sing?!). Which actors bring that special spark to festive films for you? Yes, and boy can he sing! Another actor who can sing and puts me straight in the Christmas mood is Bing Crosby. Those classic songs in White Christmas and Holiday Inn are favorites of mine. Jimmy Stewart is an obvious one. He has that charm that’s perfect for Christmas movies, especially in The Shop Around the Corner.

What’s your guiltiest pleasure on the list? Why do we love cheesy movies so much?! Every year I watch TCM’s Classic Christmas marathon [but I also watch] the Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas rom-coms. For me, I love them partly because there’s always a happy ending. I love to see all the decorations and all the cute small towns—some I wish existed so I could visit them because they’re so darn cute! Another reason I love them is the nostalgia, as some of the better ones star TV actors from the ’90s and ’00s like Candice Cameron Bure, Lacey Chabert, Jonathan Bennett, Adrian Grenier, Mario Lopez, Alicia Witt, Alison Sweeney and so many others.

One of the other great Christmas-themed lists on Letterboxd is the one about Christmas movie posters with white heterosexual couples wearing red and green—though many members pride themselves on having seen none of them. I like those movies because I can zone out and enjoy the predictable Christmas ride. However, like other Letterboxd members, I know that these aren’t Oscar-caliber films—though some are better than others! I’m glad that the powers that make these movies are starting to be more inclusive with more POC and LGTBQ+ characters. As a wheelchair user with a physical disability, I was happy to see that Lifetime has an upcoming one called Christmas Ever After, starring Ali Stroker.

Ali Stroker finds love in ‘Christmas Ever After’ (2020).

Indeed, our Make the Yuletide Gay list is an attempt to highlight queer festive films, but the pickings have been slim. Yes, very slim. There’s been queer characters in Christmas films but it’s your stereotypical gay friend or something like that. This year I feel there’s a shift in the air to be more inclusive. My favorites this year so far have been the star-filled lesbi-rom-com Happiest Season, The Christmas House—featuring a landmark first gay couple in a Hallmark festive film, Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square and Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey—with Ricky Martin! I’m looking forward to checking out A New York Christmas Wedding, The Christmas Setup and Dashing in December.

What is the scariest Christmas film that your horror-loving husband has made you watch? The best one is Black Christmas. I love that it’s female-centered and ahead of its time in their portrayals. The killer’s POV really gets me into it and still to this day puts me on edge, so much so that an ornament fell off our tree while watching it this year and it freaked me out!

Also, should we be watching The Nightmare Before Christmas on Hallowe’en or on Christmas? I watch The Nightmare Before Christmas on both holidays so you get the best of both worlds—the ghoulishness of Hallowe’en and the merriment of Christmas!

What other films on your list show Christmas in an unusual light? The first weird one that popped to mind is The Star Wars Holiday Special. That was weird! Also, from what I’ve watched I would say Eyes Wide Shut, The Ref and 3 Godfathers are not your usual Christmas films. I do have quite a few on the list I have to watch that seem weird and unusual like Elves, Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

[Editor’s note: Previous How I Letterboxd interviewee Dave Vis urges you not to watch Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny under any circumstances.]

Which actor is the quintessential Santa Claus? For me, it’s the Santa in Miracle on 34th Street, played by Edmund Gwenn. He truly embodied the part in the way he plays Kris Kringle. The gentleness and innocence he shows throughout the film is magical. It’s no wonder he won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his performance.

Gunn Wållgren in ‘Fanny and Alexander’ (1982).

Of course, so many films in the Christmas canon are American films. What are some of the best Christmas films from around the world? This question makes me realize I haven’t watched enough Christmas movies from around the world. With that being said here’s a few; A Christmas Tale from France, A Child’s Christmas in Wales from the UK, Tokyo Godfathers from Japan and Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander from Sweden. Mon oncle Antoine is a great Canadian film set in a small mining village during Christmas. It reminded me of the stories my mom and grandma talked about their Christmas traditions in their small village.

Are there any overrated classics you want to protest? I didn’t watch A Christmas Story growing up, so when I finally did watch it as an adult, I didn’t connect with it. The iconic scenes are funny and all, but it’s just okay. Now I’ll be on my hubby’s naughty list!

Does the film marathon continue through that purgatory week between Christmas and New Year? Do you have any film-related traditions to ring in the New Year? It does continue during that week to a certain extent. Some years after Christmas I’m done and what I haven’t watched goes to the following year but other years I can watch a few more and not feel overwhelmed. On New Year’s we have no traditions per se, but this year we might do a Tarantino marathon.

Christmas season is also synonymous with awards season. You keep track of a lot of Academy Awards history. How are you feeling about the awards season this year? First off, like many others, I haven’t even set foot in a theater this year and that is sad. I hope that the theater-going experience is not irreparably damaged. One good thing that came from the pandemic is film festivals streamed online and we were fortunate to watch some great titles from TIFF from the comfort of our home in September. I saw Nomadland, and it’s going to be a frontrunner for many of the main categories. I hope Regina King’s One Night in Miami gets some love. Miranda July’s Kajillionaire script is so unique—Evan Rachel Wood and Richard Jenkins should be contenders. I haven’t watched a lot of docs yet but Boys State stands out. I’m also eager to see First Cow, Minari, Ammonite, The Truffle Hunters, Soul, Mank, The Father and Promising Young Woman.

This Christmas is going to be weird for a lot of people. What’s one film you’d recommend for a guaranteed happiness injection? Weird indeed. If I have to pick just one it would be John Favreau’s Elf. Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf instantly brings a smile to my face. You can feel his joy for Christmas from start to finish. From the classic claymation, to New York City at Christmas, to eating all that sugar, to that hilarious scene with Peter Dinklage—it’s Christmas gold!

And finally, are there some other Letterboxd members you recommend we follow? Emily, Flurryheaven, Guyzo997, Peter Spencer, Michael Dean, Brent Vanhomwegen, Ara Hiddleston and also some more Christmas lists.

Old you in the garbage (new you in display case) (1/1)

Read it on AO3

For @12daysofsterek I decided to write a fun little makeover and pining fic. 13k later, the fic was finished....

Eternal thanks to @christinesficrecs for talking fic with me and for the makeover movie recs. Your Christmas gift is even longer than this one and will hopefully be finished in time ;)

My makeover movie rec: the seminal 1999 classic "Drive Me Crazy" with Melissa Joan Hart and a pre-Entourage Adrian Grenier. And yes, HE gets the makeover. Also, fake dating, and neighbors.

Summary: Stiles is lonely and desperate and suffering from a crush on the grumpiest librarian. So what’s a boy to do but cook up a ridiculous plan to get himself dated and/or finally get laid before the holidays? He just wants his She’s All That moment, okay? He never expected that the plan would actually help him get the guy.

Preview:

Operation: Get Stiles Laid For The Holidays, or GSLFTH, is strictly a solo operation, for now. It’ll end up a partnership, if it is even remotely successful. Which it probably won’t be, but fuck, he’s going to give it a try regardless.

So, what do they usually do in teen movies? Do they start with a makeover? Maybe Stiles needs to turn away from his trusty plaid, into something a little more… obvious? Appealing? Sexy? Attractive? Less like he’d chosen it when he was twelve years old and had never felt brave enough to change it?

Yeah, mostly the latter.

“Where do you buy your clothes?” Stiles turns to Derek Hale, because, well…

Derek is gorgeous. He has that tall dark and handsome thing about him that all the girls go crazy over - and some of the guys too, judging by the way that people ogle Derek when he’s bending over to properly stack a book.

Even the librarians are hotter than Stiles - Derek is like the porn version of a librarian, if they have those in guy form. Stiles hasn’t seen that particular porn vid yet, but he can totally look for it when the plan fails on him. That could be his reward, even though he honestly doubts that anyone in porn could live up to Derek’s… everything.

Okay, so maybe he does have a particular person in mind when he’s thinking about doing this makeover bullshit. Derek, the world’s hottest and grumpiest librarian, has been a frequent visitor in Stiles’ fantasies ever since Stiles first tripped onto his desk three years ago - and immediately proceeded to make a complete fool out of himself, because Mrs. Green certainly had not looked like that.

Mrs. Green was the head librarian for this particular library before Derek showed up, and she’d been the typical old lady with glasses on a chain and a pinched look around the mouth whenever Stiles dared to show up and ask for something, even though it was always in the name of academic research. She retired when Stiles was in his junior year, and he’d privately celebrated by eating a lot of Cheetos near her precious books.

Suck on that, Mrs. Green. Yes, he was still proud of that.

Read the whole thing on AO3!

Nepenthe

Nepenthe (noun)

1. A drug used by the ancients to give relief from pain and sorrow.

Then Helen, Zeus' daughter, thought of something else. She quickly dropped into the wine they were enjoying a drug which eased men's pains and irritations, making them forget their troubles.  A drink of this, once mixed in with wine, would guarantee no man   would let a tear fall on his cheek for one whole day, not even if his mother and his father died, or if, in his own presence, men armed with swords hacked down his brother or his son, as he looked on. - Odyssey Book 4

So I’ve decided to start a blog (fucking whoopee!). In these weird times of isolation, I’ve come to realise just how much music means to me, but I also found how much it means to all my friends, many of whom helped shaped my life and musical tastes.

I’m not sure exactly what this blog will look like (or if anyone will even read it) but I will be exploring my musical past, both as a listener and as a musician. I’ll try and delve into how I ended up with the music tastes I have, share certain memories/anecdotes attached to songs/albums, concert/festival memories, shows I’ve played myself and insight into my old band (Bliss & Ignorance) and current band (The Unset). I’ll try and throw in some photos and/or links to relevant things if I have anything. I will not be reviewing music or doing walkthroughs of albums. This is more of an almanac, me scribbling down my memories and thoughts and how they relate to the music I listen too.

To be honest I’m not entirely sure why I’m starting this. I took part in the Facebook game of posting 20 albums that have impacted your life. I really enjoyed doing it, I also enjoyed seeing my friends flood their timelines with their choices. It did however irk me that I couldn't dive into why I had chosen these albums. What were my friends connections to their choices? I guess this is a product of that...A willingness to share my memories and thoughts on music that matters so much to me.

We’ve all dreamed of having a movie made based on our lives (Adrian Grenier would play me obviously) and I often wonder what that soundtrack would be. I guess we’ll see how this end’s up and you never know, that big movie studio might just chase me down for a script based on my life...

Face Claim Meme

Super enjoy doing these. They’re not all perfect, but I like to think they give some vague idea of the character’s appearance. Putting this under a cut because it’s long and obnoxious!

Rori Vetinivi: Really really love Ian Somerhalder’s shit eating smirk. Something Rori wears quite frequently.

Caragai Qerel: Tadanobu Asano. finding a Mongolian actor was really difficult, the only ones I could seem to get a hold of were way too young.. I finally settled on a japanese one that could capture his age.

Fang: He’s had a couple over the years, as he’s a character I frequently recreate in different universes, but Jake Gyllenhaal is his best fit to me.

Seiken Ryotada: Takeru Satoh seems like a soft enough boy to match my Seiken.

Tatsuya Amane: Tetsuji Tamayama definitely has a yakuza sort of look about him. 

W’mitu Tia: Adrian Grenier captures his eyes and smile pretty perfectly.

Raphael Blackwoode: This one was so hard. I finally wound up going with Joe Manganiello; most face claims I could think of that had Raphael’s physique weren’t really old enough to capture him. Manganiello does that nicely!

Tagged By: @paleshadeofrose

Tagging: If you’re reading this DO IT AND TAG ME :3

My Weakness: Guys with Dark Curly Hair.

WHERE is the gilf/adrian grenier fic though.... adiran shows up to film the edu-tainment thing but jared can’t do it bc he’s not camera ready, and richard can’t do it because he’s trying to recover the system from the attack. And Adrian is about to leave but then he sees gilf who is kinda just standing there looking at this man with The Best Face and Adrian’s like “hey” and gilfs like “hey 😏”

https://www.fanbolt.com/115038/the-good-fight-season-5-review-white-privilege-bigoted-theories/

The Good Fight Season Five, created by Phil Aden Robinson, Michelle King, and Robert King, explores the Reddick & Lockhart (R&L) law firm dealing with institutions, truth, and racial justice constantly being under fire. Michelle King and the rest of the writer’s portrayed the COVID-19 pandemic brilliantly.

In the world of The Good Fight, the pandemic was entirely under control by the start of 2021. Mask wearing and social distancing are only highlighted in the first episode, “ Previously On…”.

“Previously On … ” features a series of recaps revealing how the main characters like Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) and Jay DiPersia (Nyambi Nyambi) function during the height of the pandemic. Lucca Quinn (Cush Jumbo) moves to London to work for Black billionaire Bianca Skye (Chasten Harmon). Name partner Adrian Boseman (Delroy Lindon) moves to Altana to join the Black Lives Matter movement.  Investigator Jay spends the height of the pandemic hospitalized for COVID. Former firm investigator Marissa Gold (Sarah Steele) enrolls in law school at Chicago-Kent. The chaos ensues from here.

In Episode Seven, “And the Fight had a Detente …” everybody believes name partners Liz Reddick (Audra McDonald) and Diana are in a romantic relationship. The fake relationship is never referenced, and it’s as though it never happened for the remainder of the season. The writers left a lot of great material on the floor.

The other over-the-top storylines in Season Five, like copy store worker Hal Wacker (Mandy Patinkin)  creating a court with no legal training, continued throughout the whole season. It’s too bad since the “fake lesbian” storyline was the funniest aspect of the season, bringing a necessary lightness to a dark time.

It’s hard to keep a straight face when the Tucker Carlson style anchor throws out the insane theory that Diana is a closeted Lesbian. The anchor’s only explanation for his theory is that Diana’s husband, conservative Kurt McVeigh(Gary Cole), remains camera shy. The ridiculous assertions continue when he says that she is dating named partner Liz because they are inseparable.

The Fox anchor’s baseless statements cause the two frenemies to laugh uncontrollably, triggering us to do the same. His theories are even funnier since the two female lawyers can’t get along this season.  Liz wants White Liberal Diana to step down as a name partner so R& L can be a Black-led law firm. Diana thinks that she deserves her power within the firm. The two former friends can’t stand to be in the same room together. They are only partnering up to win a $5 million civil suit against the Chicago Police Department for excessive force.

It gets funnier when the “Liberal” judge Charles Abernathy (Denis O’Hare) buys into the notion that the two women lawyers are girlfriends. Why would an intelligent being who leans politically progressive believe some bigoted journalist from Fox?

One look at Baranski and McDonald’s facial expressions reveals their plan to take advantage of Abernathy’s bigoted liberalism. Without saying a word, we know what they’re thinking. The scene shows their acting chops. This farce goes so far that R& L HR has the two women sign a “love contract.”

Since it’s a serialized story, we are left hanging because this incident is never mentioned again. The friendship chemistry between the two female partners brings magic to the show, sadly only present for this episode.  Chicago’s Justice system’s biased beliefs about the two women enabled them to forget their differences for a little bit and work together.

Institutional racism has always been at the center of The Good Fight, but this season tackles white privilege straight on. R& L usually takes on police violence cases, but this is the first time the writers reveal how the healthcare system is one of the worst culprits of institutional racism.

Episode Five, “And the Firm Had Two Partners…” is all about Drug Kingpin Oscar Rivi’s (Tony Plana) lawsuit against a hospital for racial discrimination. He thought that his twenty-something-year-old daughter died of COVID-19 because she was a person of color. His theory is that while White patients received adequate medical care, doctors ignored his daughter’s needs. It turns out that Rivi’s daughter received the best care because everybody feared him, though Jay almost died of COVID.

The investigator was packed like a sardine with at least forty other Black patients in the pit, a.k.a. hospital waiting room. The doctors declared them all “too far gone.” These Black men and women laid in their hospital beds, gasping for air with little to no medical supervision. While in a coma, Jay overheard nurses making comments revealing they don’t care about Black lives. Jay only survived because White divorce lawyer David Lee (Zach Grenier) called the hospital to check in on him. Nurses brought him to a private room. David helping Jay is an example of White privilege being used for good.

The outlandish behavior by R & L’s clients and the justice system reflects how culturally divided the United States remains even without Trump at the helm. If you love past seasons of The Good Fight or its predecessor, The Good Wife, watch all the new episodes on Paramount Plus!

Clickbait’s Twist Ending Makes No Sense

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Warning: contains spoilers for the Clickbait finale.

Criticising Netflix’s Clickbait for implausibility feels a bit like criticising a branch of McDonalds for not having a Michelin star – it’s missing the point. Of course Clickbait is implausible, it’s a McSpicy with fries, not Beluga caviar. It’s trashy and twisty and formulated to keep us watching until it serves up something shaped like an ending, and then to release us back into our lives with the only lasting impression being, ‘Oh yeah, I watched that. Had the guy from Entourage.’

Clickbait though, is built on such an implausible premise that it verges on insult – to viewers, to the trashy thriller genre, and to anybody who knows what it means to sync a mobile phone. It’s a cyber-mystery with a vaguely judgmental stance on the internet (bad because: snuff videos and revenge porn and catfishing and data harvesting and empty hook-up apps and in this age of mass connection, when did we stop actually connecting?) and a cyber blind spot the size of California, where it’s set – really Australia in disguise.

In episode one, an online video is posted of father-of-two physicotherapist Nick Brewer (the guy from Entourage aka Adrian Grenier) holding signs saying “I abuse women”, and “At five million views I die”. Nick’s loved ones then immediately watch the video so many times that it easily clears the five million mark, and (spoiler) not long afterwards, his corpse is discovered with his head bashed in. 

Nick had been kidnapped and put on video by the brother of Sarah, a woman who killed herself six months earlier after being ignored by her online boyfriend. The online boyfriend had irritably told Sarah to follow through on her threat to take her own life, so the brother found him responsible for her death. The brother also thought that Nick was Sarah’s online boyfriend, but he was wrong. Nick didn’t know anything about this woman. She had been catfished by someone who’d set up a fake dating profile using Nick’s photographs. That person was his office receptionist Dawn Gleed (Becca Lish).

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Netflix’s Clickbait Ending: Was Nick Guilty?

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Two years before he was murdered, Nick started a new job. Receptionist Dawn Gleed (old and childless, therefore lonely and unfulfilled in a beautiful-people-show like this one) set up his work login, using a password of his choice, and synced his mobile phone to his work computer. While his phone was syncing, a home screen notification came up from dating site D8R. It was a flirtatious message from a woman named Mandy, chasing Nick up after he’d complimented some bikini photos she’d sent him. This was all Nick, remember. Though married, he’d set up a fake profile under the name ‘Nick Chabot’, pretending that he was an architect in San Jose instead of an Oakland physiotherapist, and looked at Mandy’s bikini pics. 

Dawn initially looked shocked at seeing the D8R message, but after a bottle of wine at home that night, she used Nick’s password to log in to his D8R account and start messaging Mandy, posing as Nick. Dawn got a taste for it, and this carried on for two years, with multiple women over multiple online dating apps. She would set up new fake profiles using Nick’s photos, message and phone the women using voice-altering software, and then delete the profile and move on to the next app. It was a loneliness-based hobby of hers.

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But one that shouldn’t, by rights, have lasted longer than a single night. The day Dawn first drunkenly logged into Nick’s D8R account and started sending and receiving messages, Nick’s mobile phone was synced to his D8R account (which is how Dawn found out about it in the first place). Therefore, every message Dawn sent posing as him on that site that night would also have shown up as an alert on Nick’s phone. Mandy Harrison later confirmed that she and ‘Nick’ exchanged “tons of messages” but never met in person before she ended things, having sensed that something was off. 

Even disregarding the home-screen notifications from his supposedly secret dating app (not the smartest adulterer, Nick), the next time Nick logged in to D8R himself, he would have seen the “tons of messages” exchanged with Mandy Harrison. Why did it take him until he was kidnapped two years later to find out that Dawn was using him for her catfish identity? Dawn was using his log-in and password, not one she’d created. Yes, she could have changed the settings and locked him out of the account, and yes, Nick could have set up that fake profile, sent that flirtatious message and then never logged in again, but none of it feels solid as an explanation.

There are other questions, most of which can probably be answered with ‘thriller characters be crazy’. Why the seemingly arbitrary five million view rule for the video? Why did Dawn’s husband Joe nonsensically murder Nick when identity theft was the only charge Dawn was facing at the time? Why did Dawn and Joe then think that kidnapping and – who knows – murdering Nick’s son Kai, who’d followed the trail to their house, was the best way to avoid prison? Why wouldn’t Nick tell his beloved wife Sophie the truth about his dad’s suicide? Why did Sarah Burton use the pseudonym Maggie Oxley in her online dating profile? Why did none of Dawn’s victims – like Emma, who was planning to marry ‘Nick’ and happily used Facetime when his son called her – accept daily phone calls from her online boyfriend but never a video chat? 

For that matter, why did Emma still insist that Nick was the kindest, nicest man in the world after she learned he’d been using a fake name and wasn’t called Danny Walters, as he’d told her? Why were Emma and Sarah delighted and not creeped out to receive pictures ‘Nick’ had Photoshopped of themselves with him at the beach? Why did Dawn go to the trouble of inventing fake names for her ‘Nick’ personas, and then tell her victims specific details about his life, including the correct names and ages of his kids and the fact that he attends a specific college team’s women’s volleyball matches? Why, when Sarah’s brother was reading aloud details about Nick’s marriage and volleyball team from her journal was the page she’d written actually about a bird eaten by her cat? Why, why, why? 

Why? Some of the above is poetic licence – characters doing stupid, unrecognisable things because it serves the plot. Some of it is more slapdash – perhaps as a result of the added strains of producing television drama during a pandemic. Some of it is less excusable – breaking trust with the viewer and undermining the cast’s good work because it’s more important to keep us guessing and pressing ‘Next Episode’ than it is to provide a payoff that really works. It’s a junk-food thriller after all, look at the title. You can hardly accuse it of false advertising.

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Clickbait is available to stream now on Netflix.

The post Clickbait’s Twist Ending Makes No Sense appeared first on Den of Geek.

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Why We Aren't Rooting for Adrian Grenier in Clickbait's New Trailer

Why We Aren’t Rooting for Adrian Grenier in Clickbait’s New Trailer

Vincent Chase may not have been the best person, but he looks like a saint compared to Adrian Grenier’s latest character. On Wednesday, Aug. 11, Netflix released a new trailer for its upcoming drama miniseries, Clickbait, which has the Entourage alum in a suspicious new role. As the trailer teases, Grenier plays Nick Brewer, the victim of a sensationalized kidnapping. Yet, as his abductor reveals…

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