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alikaheroes · 2 years

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WOW!! What a night. I can finally say I’ve seen @halsey in concert 🥺😭❤️ So thankful! Such a fun time! 💖💖 #LoveAndPowerTour

*Added July 16

Halsey: Love and Power Tour 2022

Five Point Amphitheater

Irvine, CA

Saturday, July 9, 2022

The FivePoint Ampitheater is outdoors and looks amazing

Cornhole games!

Got my Whispers bag for merch (will print the poster at home LOL)

Chicken strips, fries, and a Pepsi

Random friends: Mom with her daughter from Long Beach, guy from Long Beach, Marine girl from San Clemente

The Marias were so good, I highly recommend them.

They played “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High” by the Arctic Monkeys and I loved it

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Chapter 1: The Capture

Love the intro like from the IICHLIWP trailer

THE TRADITION

CASTLE! Mic flip!

Halsey asking if we know what to do when the chorus drops and me shouting OH YEAH!!

Halsey saying to STOP THAT TRACK

She doesn’t usually like to pit cities against each other (random guy shouting, WHAT IRVINE??)

Show is almost 2 hours long, baby, gonna need a lot of energy! She can see everyone all over

My OMG realizing she’s restarting Castle

EASIER THAN LYING HIGH ENERGY

you should be sad is the best country song ever, we all stomped our feet!

Firework shower with the Yeah-Yeah-YeahYeah Yeah

I loooove the rock demo version of 1121 and of course the Die For Me track-I SOLD 15 MILLION RECORDS FOR A BREAKUP NOTE

CHAPTER 2: RELEASE

The intro for Graveyard from the LA show with the Euphoria vibes

“I really like you guys. You’re a cool ass f*cking crowd, I really f’ing love you guys. Wanna sing along with me going forward?

COLORS!! The Badlands feels are so real

How are you guys feeling right now?

Absolutely never ever stops to blow my f’ing mind that I get to perform on stage and perform in front of a crowd that looks like this!

First show she ever played around these parts, Observatory? Asked Sheperd

Played for 100 people (might be generous)

Lighting power run through the kitchen, no fries that night

Don’t wanna spend too much time talking, last night of tour little emotional (aww)

How many people is this your first time seeing me in concert? How many have seen me before?

Oh My Good Goooood? Loudest response for this tour of that question

Can tell you been rocking with me from the beginning

Whether here for beginning, or 5 min before walked in building

Really grateful to have you here

Make sure tonight is the best concert you’ve ever seen in your f’ing life

Hurricane with the Room 93 visuals ahhh

LILITH!! My favorite! I shouted YES because it wasn’t on the setlist the night before and I was too happy to see it! I’m all “AW YEAH” during the beginning before I sing along. I also love the visuals with the Titane vibes

I heard the Lighthouse Siren and was sooo hyped, them O’Jays Ship Ahoy vibes at this concert had me emotional.

“This Woman Will Not Go Quietly” line from the film

One of my favorites, the rock Banshee vibes, beautiful visuals, I’m so in love

killing boys - The whole crowd shouting “I’mma Uma Thurman your ass” was poetic

“You’re gonna hear the weird sh*t before you get the hits because that’s my style, but you begged for this so you better f’ing sing!”

GIRL IS A GUN!!!

YES!

TALK 2 (Chapter 3: Reflect)

Be Kind drawing time!!

Done paintings every single time something different

Those close in her life, do you plan? I mean, come on

No, Absolutely Not

Do you plan what you’re gonna say? Set list before you get there? Same.

This tour has been a lesson for me in embracing surrendering control (mild cheer for that—I did for the song Control)

Used to get on stage wanting so badly it all to be perfect

Looks back on pics of sparkly costumes doing choreography and goes who tf is that?

You guys know that feeling? It’s not just a musician thing. You see pics of yourself when you were younger you’re like who tf is that?

Kinda the same thing, 50 million pictures like that on Google

Ask at the beginning of show, what matters more to the story, is it good or is it true?

Look at self in pictures, true to herself then, being true

Some songs that she’s written doesn’t relate to same way? Does that make them untrue? Words not me anymore even tho they were at some point…little bit of a mindf*ck. Idk, kinda crazy

Most true version of myself is up here with a pen in my hand, canvas in front of me, and like 20,000 people that I love with my f’ing heart (I screamed WE LOVE YOU)

When I look back in a couple years, won’t think omg who tf is that, will think wow, I was so lucky to be that person once in my life, so thank you.

Songs about difficult times, used to be very sad alll the time. Still pretty sad all the time but wanna say if you’re here and share that same mentality, look back at version of you that related to sad songs and not that person anymore, sing your heart out tonight. Get it all out. When you leave, don’t take that old person with you, you’re not that b*tch anymore. You gotta exercise the demons and leave them on the floor

This song is called 100 Letter

100 Letters, everyone had their phones up with lights

TALK 3 (Pre 929)

In the spirit of the show of not letting things being perfect.

Like the worst ever sang, on the verge of tears the entire time.

imma gonna fight this I’m not gonna f’ing cry, I’m gonna do it!

I did not do it. I failed. Miserably haha

G-damn not even halfway through the set and I’m already crying

“Where the f you at?” I coughed.

HALSEY CHANT

Are you trying to make you make me cry? Are you guys playing a game with me? This is some sick f’ing twisted sh*t you’re doing. And you guys trying to make me cry more this is some sick sh

Believe me sang song 100 times it doesn’t make me cry anymore

About to cry because knew what song comes after it, haven’t played it in years

Probably most important song written for self in entire life.Really wanted to perform it in front of you guys tonight

Dad to finally call me, he did (AWW)

I wasn’t in love them (but I sure as F am now!!!)

Done being sad, no more being sad long night ahead of us, TIME TO BE GAY

HONEY

Me: HONEYYYY

Went into 3AM

ME: YESSS

She’s laughing during it so cute!!

Fireworks and playing with guitarist

Talked about how fast song is and you don’t need to know the words

TALK 4 (Thankful to fans, curfew)

I know for a fact people on my team backstage rn like, “She good?”

Are you OK? Did somebody slip you something before the show? WTF is going on?

Soaking up every second possibly can because this is the last night and love what I do so f’ing much

I hope from bottom of night you can see it all over my face how much I love being up here and being with you

Why get out here and do a show 2 horus long

Other do hour, get on stage, F off and leave

Wanna be here every f’ing second until the cops come up and yank me off stage for breaking curfew

F’ing love what I do!

Thank you for letting me do it love you guys so f’ing much!

STOMPING FEET

So Good - like a couple weeks new don’t get too excited.

“I love getting to play this song when he’s standing back there” LOVE TO ALEV

BAD AT LOVE - YES

HOLD ME DOWN

SHE DID THE SPLITS

TALK 4 (BAND/Ring Announcer)

Most incredible musicians and people and friends

So lucky all agreed to come on the road with me

Could’ve been doing something much cooler, I promise haha

Usually make fun of them during this part

Drums - next season of Bachelorette

Keys - Terrified of goldfish

Make something up and embarass them

Too heartfelt, need you guys to be so loud for me

DRUMS: Harry (will you guys please give it up for Harry!)

GUITAR: Liv

Don’t f’ing look at me I’ll cry

KEYS Bonnie

Halsey says she’s calling them out like a ring announcer

AND OVER HERE CHECKING IN AT 245 POUNDS HE IS TOUGH (I audibly said omGGG LITERALLY MY BRAND WITH MY WRESTLING LOVING SELF I lost it here) HE HAILS FROM IRVINE CA

YESS WHOOO

That’s my impression…this is why everyone on my team is gonna say somebody drugged me

Last show with tme as well, grateful to have support on road

Part do 2 more songs, prepare to leave, comeback and do encore

HALSEY CHANT

For what? What did I do? I didn’t even do anthing

WHISPERS

GO BACK AND F HIM

GASOLINE! FIRE (I love hearing my name in it)

Chapter 4: Reflect

Flashing lights and rock music

Jumps up with flames and PYRO

NIGHTMARE

Statistics for Abortion (my camera shut off for it ofc but it was PHENOMENAL)

TALK 5 (Abortion Rights/Political)

Put in show 5 weeks before Supreme Court decision and statistics were much different then

We’re here in our little island

Second to say as long as I have a microphone and stage if your well being livelihood and happiness at stake I will always f’ing be political

In case you couldn’t tell, so many people in the crowd I recognize I’ve met so many times, who stories I know, parents I know, journeys through school work and life that I know, break f’ing heart if something going on in this world cause you bodily harm to get care you need and I did nothing about it

If politics aren’t your thing all good,

Just learned a valuable lesson don’t come to a Halsey concert then.

Little bit of time

CHANT

MY BODY - Audience: MY CHOICE

“THANK YOU!”

Music is political. Everything is political. Brave to leave house come here exactly as you are. Clothes you were. Words you sing. People you love. Things you do. Everything is f’ing political

Running up that hill with the flame bar

WITHOUT ME

Went into audience, guy had sign said his BF broke his heart, Halsey said “F HIM” to flip off hurtful ex

Confetti!!

Acapella,

“Put you up there, I don’t know why” - audience

I Am Not A Woman I’m a God

Irvine. Thank you guys so much for an incredible night. So glad I got to close out this tour with you. This will be my last tour here for a really long time playing shows here in the states so I really love you and I really appreciate you for a great night. Did you have fun? Get home safe. I love you!

Y’aburnee playing on way out

Shareable Review

#Halsey #personal

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irvinenewshq · 2 years

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Mngomezulu leads Stormers to strong win over Zebre

Younger Stormers inside centre Sacha Mngomezulu fantastically led his aspect to a strong 37-20 (halftime 17-7) bonus level win over Zebre Parma of their United Rugby Championship conflict on the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in Italy on Saturday afternoon. Junior Bok Mngomezulu, on his first begin for the Stormers, was entrusted with the kicking duties forward of flyhalf Manie Libbok. He duly rewarded the religion proven in him as he produced a improbable efficiency to fit all seven of his photographs at purpose, whereas he additionally scored a attempt to assisted one, and ended up scoring 22 of the groups 37 factors. ALSO READ: Stormers relaxation Boks over European tour The Stormers received off to a robust begin within the match, with their scrum incomes an early penalty, getting them into the Zebre 22m. One other penalty allowed them to place the ball out on the 5m, safe the lineout, arrange the maul, and energy over, with flank Junior Pokomela dotting down and Mngomezulu changing to place them 7-0 up. The Stormers continued to dominate, with various penalties in opposition to Zebre retaining them pinned of their territory, however after lacking a number of possibilities the guests then selected to go for the three factors, with Mngomezulu slotting a penalty after 16 minutes to take a 10-0 lead. Zebre then lastly managed to get a foothold within the sport and loved some optimistic territory and possession, nevertheless it was the Stormers who went additional forward within the 36th minute. From a lineout on Zebre’s 22m the Stormers arrange a robust maul, with Pokomela breaking off and getting shut, earlier than the recycled ball then discovered prop Neethling Fouche on the cost to crash over for a transformed rating. Zebre nevertheless had the ultimate say of the half as straight from the kick off they earned a penalty, kicked into the Stormers 22m, attacked from the lineout, with scrumhalf Chris Cook dinner then sniping over to attain, and flyhalf Tiff Eden changing to make it 17-7 on the break. Quick second half begin The second half then kicked off with Zebre powering into the Stormers 22m, establishing various choose and goes for the forwards, earlier than prop Ion Neculai powered over to attain, with Eden’s extras bringing them to inside three factors after 42 minutes. Within the 51st minute the Stormers then struck again in opposition to the run of play, as massive stress on a Zebre scrum led to the hosts dropping the ball, permitting Mngomezulu to toe the ball forward, catch it and offload to scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies to go over to attain, with the conversion placing them up 24-14. A kicking battle between Eden and Mngomezulu then took centre stage as they traded 4 penalties between them from the 59th to 68th minute, with the rating 30-20 within the Stormers favour at that stage. With the sport then winding down, the Stormers attacked from a scrum within the Zebre 22m, because the ball the ball inevitably discovered its method to Mngomezulu to place the cherry on the cake with the fourth strive bonus level, and transformed it to finish win. Scorers Zebre: Tries – Chris Cook dinner, Ion Neculai; Conversions – Tiff Eden (2); Penalties: Eden (2) Stormers: Tries – Junior Pokomela, Neethling Fouche, Herschel Jantjies, Sacha Mngomezulu; Conversions – Mngomezulu (4); Penalties – Mngomezulu (3) Originally published at Irvine News HQ

#Irvine News HQ

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usgunn · 5 years

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September 1, 2019

CLICK HERE for the September 1, 2019 playlist

1. Furniture - “Transatlantic Cable” (1983)

I stumbled across this band for the first time this week. Led by Jim Irvin, who went on to be a British music journalist and also has a co-write credit on a Lana Del Rey song? Only one EP is on Spotify, but I was so smitten with it I had to lead off with something from it this week. I’m getting a David Sylvian-vibe.

2. The Late Bronze Age - “King Greed” (1980)

Spotify credits this song to Col. Bruce Hampton and the Late Bronze Age, but when this record, Outside Looking Out, first came out, they were just the Late Bronze Age. No offense to my hippie pals out there, but due to his frequent visits to the Georgia Theater back when it was a jam-band haunt I always assumed I would never want to have anything to do with Col. Bruce. But nobody told me he was in a jazzy new wave band in the early 80′s that sounded like what I always wished Pere Ubu sounded like.

3. Tesco Bombers - “Break The Ice at Parties” (1982)

London band with but one release, the 7″ from which this song comes, on Y Records, which also put out killer music from Maximum Joy and Shriekback. I only know this from a compilation, Cease & Desist: DIY!, put together by JD Twitch of Optimo, the legendary Glaswegian DJ team.

4. Social Climbers - “Palm Springs” (1981)

NYC-band (by way of Bloomington, IN) who made one self-titled record and disappeared as far as I know, later reissued through the combined power of Drag City and Yoga Records. Now you know as much as I do. A lot of the album is more vocal-driven, but this track felt right to kick off a run of instrumental tracks coming up.

5. Fernando Falcão - “Ladeira dos Inocentes” (1981)

Back to Optimo - they also run a label, Optimo Music, which has picked up a sub-label, Selva Discos, that is putting out some fantastic and forgotten Brazilian music--and that label has just reissued two private-press Fernando Falcão albums. I first heard Fernando Falcão on the great Outro Tempo compilation a couple of years ago of avant-garde Brazilian music from the 80′s (the Os Mulheres Negras track from a few weeks back came from that compilation). I don’t know what you call this music. I like it when you don’t know what to call it.

6. Ennio Morricone - “Seguita” (1971)

I’m not gonna pretend to know much about Morricone beyond what everyone knows (Italian film composer, did several Sergio Leone movies). But I always love hearing his music, and I’ve always really liked the Crime and Dissonance compilation (from which this song is taken) of some of his lesser-known work put together by Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls and released on Mike Patton of Faith No More’s Ipecac Records. This menacing jazz tune is from the movie Gli Occhi Freddi Della Paura, if knowing that sort of thing is important to you.

7. Sons of Kemet - “My Queen is Harriet Tubman” (2018)

One of several projects of Shabaka Hutchings, a British saxophonist and restless collaborator. Seems to exist somewhere between jazz and afrobeat, with two drummers pounding out frenetic rhythms. The album this comes from, Your Queen is a Reptile, was The Wire magazine’s #1 album of 2018.

8. 75 Dollar Bill - “Tetuzi Akiyama” (2019)

75 Dollar Bill started as a guitar and drums duo but have expanded to something much different, playing music that seems steeped in the traditions of some mythical country. This song is like the blues on acid.

9. 5ive Style - “Pledge Drive” (1999)

5ive Style was a Chicago supergroup (if a supergroup can consist of people no-one has ever heard of): John Herndon (Tortoise, Poster Children) on drums, Leroy Bach (Chicago man-about-town, later in Wilco) on bass, Jeremy Jacobson (one-man-band The Lonesome Organist) on keys, and the inestimable Billy Dolan (later of Heroic Doses) on guitar. Dolan is one of THE great unsung guitar players of the last, I don’t know, 40 years, and you get a taste of that here.

10. Orange Juice - “Two Hearts Together (10″ Version)” (1982)

Whether you like this song will determine whether we can be friends. Not really, but I will die on the Orange Juice hill. Orange Juice was a Glasgow indie-pop band that most people only care about for their early singles and first-draft of their first album, when they were a scrappy, lo-fi band on Glasgow indie-lable Postcard Records. But I prefer Orange Juice after they signed to Polydor and became an over-produced also-ran. This Caribbean-inflected non-album single came between their first and second albums on Polydor, when the band had shed its original guitarist and drummer and added Malcolm Ross on guitar (from Edinburgh’s Josef K) and Zeke Manyika on drums, a Zimbabwe-born multi-talented musician who later recorded with The The and The Style Council, and who in my opinion was a catalyst for the best phase of Orange Juice’s career (but who otherwise seems to be a footnote in most people’s Orange Juice histories--to the extent other people have Orange Juice histories).

11. Archer Prewitt - “Gifts of Love” (2002)

Archer Prewitt is best known as the lead guitar player for The Sea and Cake, but made several solo albums of his own in the late 90′s/early 2000′s. No one would ever accuse The Sea and Cake’s bossa-nova inflected, jazzy post-rock of being “hard,” but Archer’s albums really veered into 70′s soft rock territory, in the best way possible. There’s a lot to like about this song, but the string-laden outro may be the best part, so good that I’m always disappointed when it fades out so soon.

12. The Clientele - “Bookshop Casanova” (2007)

The Clientele are a long-time Merge Records band that’s never really caught fire like some others, likely due to their spurts of inactivity and seeming reluctance to tour the U.S. in any meaningful way. Their catalog is deep at this point, full of poignant moments of beauty and deceptively complex arrangements that invite repeat listens. This song, though, is probably the closest they ever got at translating what they do into something that might catch a casual listener’s ear at first blush.

13. Howard Ivans - “Red Face Boy” (2013)

Howard Ivans is the alter-ego of Ivan Howard, co-leader of another Merge Records band, The Rosebuds. While The Rosebuds always rooted their genre-experiments in the world of indie-rock, the Howard Ivans persona allows Howard to go full R&B, with wonderful results. This was one of the first singles put out by Matthew E. White’s Spacebomb Records, and they went all out, with horns arranged by White and strings arranged by Trey Pollard, all cut to tape in Richmond, VA.

14. BADBADNOTGOOD & Ghostface Killah (ft. MF Doom) - “Ray Gun” (2015)

BADBADNOTGOOD is, as far as I can tell, a bunch of nerds from Canada who play really inventine funk, soul and jazz music, and they made a whole record, Sour Soul, backing Ghostface Killa from Wu-Tang Clan. I haven’t dived in too deep yet, but really like this song featuring the legendary MF Doom. Doom and Ghostface have been teasing a collaborative album for years under the name DOOMSTARKS, but so far, nothing.

15. Baby Huey - “Hard Times” (1971)

Larger than life at 400 lbs. and dead at 26 due to heroin, Baby Huey was not around long enough to make much of a mark. But he did manage to record one full-length, produced by Curtis Mayfield, from which this song comes (the song was also penned by Mayfield). There’s an amazing, nearly 10-minute performance of “A Change is Going to Come” on there too, but there wasn’t room this week (I reserve the right to put 10-minute long songs on this playlist, though).

16. Craig Finn - “Something to Hope For” (2019)

I was never much of a Hold Steady fan -- I appreciated them more than I liked them. But I feel like frontman Craig Finn is really coming into his own on the solo side of things, and the album he put out this year, I Need a New War, has some great moments, including this earnest, soul-inflected tune.

#playlist #spotify #weekly #music discovery

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whiteheaddean00-blog · 5 years

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hlseydaily · 8 months

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July 9, 2022 | Halsey performing at the Love and Power Tour Irvine!

#halsey #dailyhalsey #halseydaily #halseysource #hotelhalsey #halseyroom #concert #love and power tour #love and power tour irvine #irvine

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weekendwarriorblog · 3 years

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The ThanksgivingWarrior 11/25/20 – THE CROODS: A NEW AGE, MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM, ZAPPA, HAPPIEST SEASON, STARDUST and More!

It’s Thanksgiving weekend, and usually I’d be struggling to figure out how much the new movies might make in what is normally one of the most unpredictable weekends at the year. Wait a second. I’m getting déjà vu here. Didn’t I say this exact same thing in the intro for last week’s column? Probably. Let’s face it, kids. I am absolutely losing my mind with how bored I am getting looking at my laptop screen all day long, even though I’ve now set up a pretty sweet new TV system to watch stuff on!

Anyway, there is one family movie coming to theatres this weekend, and in any other Thanksgiving weekend, I’d suggesting getting out and going to theaters, but at this point in the pandemic, with COVID numbers so bad that even I, “Mr. Reopen the Movie Theaters!” can’t recommend going to see a movie in theaters… well, except maybe in New York City, where they’re still closed. Sigh.

We’re going to do things a little different this week, because I wasn’t able to get to as many movies as I wanted but didn’t want to delay the column to Thanksgiving Day. Instead, I’ll post what I have done on Wednesday, then check back here on Friday when hopefully I’ve added a few more reviews. Cool?

Fortunately, the new animated sequel from DreamWorks Animation and Universal Pictures, THE CROODS: A NEW AGE, is a lot of fun, and this is from someone who really enjoyed the first movie quite a bit. The sequel’s premise is as simple as you can get: caveman family The Croods (voiced by Nick Cage, Catherine Keener, Emma Stone, Clarke Duke and Cloris Leachman), along with Ryan Reynold’s Guy, are still trying to survive in the wilds until they encounter a beautiful oasis that turns out to be the home of the more-evolved Bettermans, Phil (Peter Dinklage), Hope (Leslie Mann) and Dawn (Kelly Marie Tran).

I really liked the original The Croods quite a bit, so I’ve been waiting patiently for DreamWorks to figure things out for a sequel. My instincts were definitely spot-on, because even if the original premise sounded a lot like The Flintstones, putting those voice actors together, even if it’s just Ryan Reynolds and Emma Stone proved to be quite prescient. A big part of the sequel is the burgeoning romance between their characters, Guy and Eep, much to the brutish chagrin of Eep’s father Grug (really Cage at his finest). Then along comes the Bettermans, and then it changes into a movie that is constantly showing the differences between the two families in many funny ways.

I’ve long admired Emma Stone as an actress, since she’s no naturally funny, and that’s even more apparent by how much she brings to Eep with merely her voice. Some of the scenes between her and Tran’s Dawn are absolutely hilarious. Cloris Leachman’s Gran also has some absolutely LOL moments later in the film. In some ways, Reynolds while funny, especially when pit against Cage and Dinklage’s characters, takes a back seat to the ladies.

I was equally impressed with the film in terms of its animation and how gorgeous and colorful the whole thing is, but more than that, it thrusts in a zaniness that I’d usually expect from something like Ren and Stimpy or SpongeBob SquarePants. So as much as it’s a kid movie, there’s enough to entertain older kids and even old men like me.

Without having seen Pixar’s Soul yet (this weekend!), Croods: A New Age may be one of the most entertaining animated movies I’ve seen this year, and that’s because it leans so heavily on being so absolutely crazy and zany that you can’t help but have fun.

You can read more about the movie and how it was made in a feature I wrote for Below the Line.

Next up is MA RAINEY’s BLACK BOTTOM, George C. Wilson’s adaptation of the 1982 August Wilson play that preceded Fences, which Netflix will give a theatrical release this week before it goes to streaming in December. Like Fences, this once again stars that film’s Oscar winner, Viola Davis, in the title role of Ma Rainey, a legendary blues and jazz singer in the late ‘20s who has come to a recording studio in Chicago to make a record with her band. The band’s hotshot trumpet player Levee (the late Chadwick Boseman) is more interested in breaking out on his own, and he does everything to grandstand and try to impress the label guy (Jonny Coyne) even if it means throwing the rest of the band under the bus.

Since I never saw Wilson’s play, I really didn’t know what to expect from this movie, although the fact that most of it takes place in a recording studio definitely had my interest piqued. In case, you’re wondering about that odd title, it’s actually a song in Ma Rainey’s repertoire that she wants to do one way, but her manager Irvin (Jeremy Shamos) wants to try Levee’s version of the song. Ma’s not having any of it, and a lot of the film involves her

There’s been quite a lot of chatter about Chadwick Boseman getting a posthumous Oscar nomination for his performance in this, and it’s probably well-deserved since he gives quite a showy performance as Levee, giving a couple moving monologues including one about his mother being sexually assaulted by white men. It’s a very powerful performance indeed.

Rainey is certainly an interesting character for Viola Davis to play, even if she’s not necessarily likable with her obstinate demeanor and the way she gloms over her eye candy Dussie Mae, played by Taylour Paige, and dotes over her nephew Sylvester (Dusan Brown). As interesting as those relationships are, I probably enjoyed the interaction between the musicians more, because Boseman is working with some greats like Colman Domingo, Michael Potts and Glynn Turman. It’s actually kind of interesting how it switches between Levee and the musicians and Ma dealing with Irving upstairs.

As much as the Wilsons are exploring some interesting topics about race and the treatment of black people in the times, the movie frequently feels dated and it feels like some of the ideas are never fully revolved, even as it builds up to a fairly shocking climax.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, but it’s a perfectly fine dramatic piece, but I didn’t feel that it had the weight of other movies about race I’ve seen, including yes, Green Book (sorry, haters), and a lot of that probably has more to do with George Wilson’s direction than August Wilson’s writing.

Just want to quickly mention a couple movies I’ve already reviewed, which will hit the streamers this week, including Steve McQueen’s LOVERS ROCK on Amazon Prime Video, which I wrote about here, and Ron Howard’s HILLBILLY ELEGY, now on Netflix after a short theatrical release. I reviewed the latter here.

I’ve actually seen Lovers Rock a second time since the New York Film Festival, and I enjoyed it even more, as it’s really a well-crafted film even if it’s not as immediate maybe as Mangrove (now on Amazon Prime) and Red, White and Blue, which will be on Prime Video on December 4. I just love how Steve McQueen created a shorter piece that isn’t quite as deep as some of the others since Lovers Rock isn’t based on history but is just a nice young romance about two young people who meet and fall in love at a “Blues Night” party. It’s not as deep as the other movies I’ve seen, but is still good. Oh, and my interview with Steve McQueen is up at Below the Line finally, and I’m pretty proud of it, so check it out!

I don’t know if I have too much more to say about Hillbilly Elegy, but I hope people will give it a chance because even if it does have problems and isn’t perfect, it’s an interesting story, particularly for Glenn Close’s performance.

This week’s “Featured Flick” is Alex Winter’s doc, ZAPPA (Magnolia Pictures), an amazing film that takes a look at the life and career of the late Frank Zappa, best known for his quirky rock tunes but just at proficient at writing jazz and classical musical. I definitely went through a bit of a Zappa phase in my teens, and every once in a while, I would go back and see what had been released since his death in 1993, because his wife and widow Gail did a great job getting a lot of his unreleased music and live shows out there.

What shocked me when I saw Zappa was how little I really knew about the musician, because maybe he was a little bit of an enigma while he was still alive. I enjoyed the other doc, Eat That Question: Zappa In His Own Words, that came out a few years back, which was made up of public interviews Zappa gave, but it doesn’t really give as clear a picture of the man as Winter’s doc does.

For instance, Winter gets a lot of the musicians, including the amazing Ruth Underwood, who played with Zappa in the Mothers. You’d assume those musicians would presumably know the man best having toured with him for years, and yet, even they say that other than when they were rehearsing diligently or playing gigs, Zappa kept to himself. We also get a good sense of what a family man he was, since Winter was able to get Gail to talk to him before she herself passed way in 2015.

Zappa is an absolutely terrific doc that I hope music enthusiasts give a look even if they think they know what Zappa was about or maybe even those who didn’t care for his music. You might be pleasantly surprised by the tremendous amount of depth Winter brings to this talented musician and composer who still had a lot more to say. (And that’s an understatement!)

Incidentally, I’ll have an interview with Winter over at Below the Line very soon.

On the other end of the musical spectrum (more or less) is Gabriel Range’s STARDUST (IFC Films) -- not to be confused with Matthew Vaughn’s far better Stardust – this one starring Johnny Flynn, who played a young Albert Einstein in Genius: Einstein, this time playing a young David Bowie. Years before breaking it big with his album Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, young David just can’t catch a break in the U.S., so he goes on a road trip in 1971 with his Ron Oberman (Marc Maron), the A&R guy from his U.S. label who hopes to get Bowie across to young American audiences.

I’m not quite sure how someone can screw up a movie about Bowie, one of my all-time favorite artists, but making a movie that a.) takes place in the most boring era of Bowie’s career and b.) Not actually being able to use any of Bowie’s beloved tracks, certainly doesn’t help matters. It also doesn’t help that the script just isn’t great, creating a fairly dull biopic that relies more on Maron’s personality basically playing the same character we’ve seen him play so many times before to stay even halfway entertaining. I couldn’t even get excited by Jena Malone, an actress I generally appreciate, as David’s wife Angie, because she plays her to be such a despicable and unsympathetic character.

If Maron is decent than Johnny Flynn is just plain flaccid as Bowie, playing him so mopey and aloof that when he finally emerges from his chrysalis as Ziggy Stardust – also with little of the flamboyance in his stage shows -- you just don’t give a rat’s ass anymore. Oh, and a lot of the movie is based on the theory that the history of mental issues in his family is what haunts the singer. Drab and dull, Stardust manages to make the most exciting rock star of the last half century seem like the most boring person on earth. It’s a flat-out failure as a biopic.

Joan Carr-Wiggins’ GETTING TO KNOW YOU (Gravitas Ventures) is a witty Canadian high-concept rom-com, starring Natasha Little and Rupert Penry-Jones as two strangers who have a chance encounter at a hotel in Northern Ontario. The latter plays New Yorker Luke Manning, who is back home for his high school reunion, but when his positively smashed high school girlfriend Kaila (Rachel Blanchard from Peepshow) shows up at the hotel hoping to rekindle their spark, he asks Little’s character Abby to pretend to be his wife.

I don’t have a lot to say about this movie which was a nice surprise and clearly a labor of love for the filmmaker. Honestly, my favorite part of the movie is how hilarious Rachel Blanchard is in it. I’m not sure what’s wrong with me that found her deliriously drunk nightmare of an ex to be kind of sexy, but maybe that’s just me. In fact, the movie might have been even funnier if the rest of the cast were able to keep up with Blanchard, but the connection between the two leads did grow on me as it went along. It definitely has some funnier moments like when Kaila’s bowling husband Kenny shows up, and then some of Luke’s other classmates pop in as well, but it does have to work very hard whenever Blanchard isn’t on screen. (I also enjoyed watching the soap opera that seemed to be going on between the employees of the hotel, which was perpetually funny.) Otherwise, it does feel a little flat whenever Blanchard is on screen.

The filmmaker’s lack of experience is sometimes obvious, because there are things like the repetitive music that I wasn’t so crazy about. Otherwise, this is a light and quaint indie that’s a little off the beaten track, but you won’t have any regrets if you make the effort to go looking for it.

I’m thrilled to see actor Clea Duvall back behind the camera for her second film as a director, HAPPIEST SEASON, which was going to get a theatrical release through Sony’s TriStar Pictures at one point. Instead, it’s now going to be on Hulu starting Wednesday. (Today!) It’s a high-concept rom-com starring Mackenzie Davis and Kristen Stewart with Davis playing Harper, a woman who has not come out of her closet to her family, which makes it that much more awkward when she brings her girlfriend Abby (Stewart) home for the holidays.

As mentioned, this is a fairly high-concept comedy that uses the idea of someone coming out to their disapproving family we’ve seen in many movies, but does it in a way that can take it seriously but still allow for some funny moments. In fact, there are times when the comedy even goes into Meet the Parents territory in terms of the character humor.

I really enjoyed Duvall’s previous film, The Intervention, and once again, she has put together such as great cast to realize the script that she wrote with Mary Holland. In fact, Holland has a great role, playing Harper’s bubbly sister Jane, who steals so many scenes in terms of the humor that I was shocked that I only realized later she co-wrote the script with Duvall.

Mackenzie Davis continues to be every director’s secret weapon, because like in Jason Reitman’s Tully, she can literally deliver on every aspect of the movie, keeping the comedy aspects grounded but also deliver a really poignant performance. She also works really well with Kristen Stewart, maybe bringing out things in Stewart we just haven’t been able to see before.

Besides having Alison Brie play Harper’s older sister and Aubrey Plaza as an old flame, Duvall also had the foresight to get the amazing Dan Levy, recent multi-Emmy winner for Schitt’s Creek, to play Abby’s best friend, who is constantly there for her to kvetch and who shows up to pretend to be her boyfriend. (Oddly, there’s a lot of that sort of thing going on in movies this week.)

Happiest Season works as a perfectly fine albeit fairly traditional holiday rom-com in a similar way as The Family Stone. More than anything, Duvall continually proves her abilities as a filmmaker that can handle comedy and drama equally well.

Next up, is Alan Ball’s UNCLE FRANK (Amazon), the Oscar-winning writer of American Beauty, directing only his second movie after 2007’s Towelhead – you might remember his HBO shows Six Feet Under and True Blood. This one, set in the ‘70s, stars Paul Bettany as the title character with Sophia Lillis from It Chapter One and Two playing his niece Beth, a teen from Creekville, South Carolina who worships her New York-based professor uncle. When she goes to college in New York, she attends one of Frank’s parties with her pseudo-boyfriend and ends up learning that Frank’s “roommate” Wally (Peter Macdissi) is actually his boyfriend. When Frank and Beth return to South Carolina for his father’s funeral, he has to try to keep his sexuality and relationship with Wally a secret from his family. Yeah, this does sound a little like Happiest Season, doesn’t it? It is, but only to a point.

At first, Uncle Frank is a cute but not-particularly-deep coming-of-age story about Lillis’ character as a fish out of water in New York City. Once Wally is introduced, he seems to be there just to make jokes and lighten the mood as it turns into a road trip. From his previous work, I’ve grown to enjoy Ball’s unconventional storytelling, but by comparison, this movie is very by-the-books, so it never really grabs the viewer.

The biggest problem with Ball’s latest--and it’s one that I see in a lot of movies these days--is that it doesn’t know whether it should be a comedy or a drama, and because it isn’t particularly funny, you expect it to fare better as a drama and yet, it doesn’t.

Ball has such a great cast including Judy Greer, Margo Martindale, Stevens Root and Zahn, all playing the duo’s racist Southern family, but they disappear for long sections of the movie, and then don’t do much when they return for the more dramatic last act where it turns into such a maudlin melodrama once Frank and Beth get back to South Carolina. As they mourn the dead patriarch, Frank keeps reflecting back on what drove him to New York in the first place, and we’re pummelled with so many flashbacks. Lillis’ character almost gets lost at this point, even this story is supposed to be told from her point of view.

Essentially, Uncle Frank falls somewhere quite literally between Hillbilly Elegy and Happiest Season but not being as good as either. It’s just disappointing that Ball didn’t have someone offering good advice on handling material that will constantly have you groaning, “What was the point?”

Screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan (The Kingdom, State of Play, 21 Bridges makes his directorial debut with MOSUL, which will debut on Netflix this Thursday. As you can figure out from the title, this takes place in Iraq in the fall of 2016 where an army of 100,000 Iraqi soldiers and militia men mobilize to liberate Iraq’s second largest city from ISIS along with the embedded journalist Ali Maula. Surprise, surprise, this is another movie from last year’s September festival season, too, and there also was a documentary from last year with the same name about the same story, too.

I’ve been a fan of some of the films Carnahan has written over the years, some mentioned above, but his directorial debut certainly sounds ambitious, since he’s working with an all-Arab cast. I look forward to watching and reviewing this one, hopefully before Friday.

Premiering on Disney+ this Friday after losing its theatrical release – this is becoming the norm for Disney, huh? – is Ashley Avis’ adaptation of Anna Sewell’s classic piece of literature, BLACK BEAUTY about a girl and her horse. The girl is played by Mackenzie Foy from Interstellar and The Conjuring, and Black Beauty the horse is voiced by Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet. No, I did not make that up, and I can’t wait to watch this, to see how that works exactly. Look for my review later this week… hopefully.

On top of that, those Trixie Pixies at Disney+ have somehow managed to secretly pull together a Taylor Swift concert called folkore: the long pond studio sessions, which will premiere exclusively on Disney+ November 25. Oh, that’s today!

Debuting on Showtime this Sunday is Errol Morris’ new doc MY PSYCHEDELIC LOVE STORY, which takes a look at the Acid King Timothy Leary through the eyes of his lover, Joanna Harcourt-Smith, trying to figure out her part in his turn into a narc for the CIA. Another one I hope to get to soon because while I like Morris’ political films like The Fog of War and even the Steve Bannon doc American Dharma, this seems more in the vein of Tabloid, which I also enjoyed. Will try to watch this over the weekend and report back.

Also of note is that the doc She is the Ocean (Blue Fox Entertainment) will be hitting On Demand this week. I guess I never got around to reviewing it.

So, let’s see. We’ve had some good movies, we’ve had some not great movies, and we’ve had a few movies that I just didn’t get around to watching yet. What does that leave? How about two of the worst movies I’ve seen this year? Are you ready?

SUPERINTELLIGENCE (HBO Max) is the latest comedy from Melissa McCarthy and hubby director Ben Falcone, and boy, it won’t take you long to realize why New Line decided LONG before COVID not to give it a theatrical release, instead handing it over to its new streamer HBO Max.

In this, McCarthy plays Carol Peters, an average Seattle woman, who – I mean, honestly, does it even matter what she does? It’s irrelevant. Carol encounters an artificial intelligence being with the voice of James Corden that has just achieved self-awareness and wants to study Carol in order to understand humanity. But what are its plans… to save humanity or destroy it? Only Carol has the power to keep the world from finding out.

I honestly don’t even know where to begin except that I was a Melissa McCarthy stan for a long time before Bridesmaids; Superintelligence makes it all-too-obvious that she needs to stop making movies with Falcone. It’s not that he’s an incapable director, but he just doesn’t give her the actual direction she needs. The movie is just all over the place, starting with the physical comedy McCarthy has done so much in her movies, but then turning into a romantic comedy as the AI tries to reunite Carol with her college boyfriend George, played by Bobby Cannavale. Apparently, making The Heat with Sandra Bullock has made Falcone think his wife could or should be Sandra Bullock. No, she can’t. Throwing her into a ridiculous concept like this one that isn’t very solid does little to endear McCarthy to the fans she keeps driving away with bad movies like this.

I’m sure it doesn’t help that I really hate James Corden and hearing his voice over the course of the movie while also acting very META by referencing the ACTUAL James Corden, Carpool Karaoke, etc. Just none of it is very funny. Oddly, this is written by the same guy who wrote the duo’s earlier movie, The Boss, which I didn’t think was that bad, but mainly because McCarthy was paired with Kristen Bell for a lot of the movie.

On top of that, Superintelligence wastes its entire supporting cast from Brian Tyree Henry to Sam Richardson (from Veep) but also has Karan Son from Deadpool playing the EXACT SAME CHARACTER he played in Like A Boss, but only for a few minutes then he’s gone. At least it had the forethought to cast Jean Smart as the President, but the fact that I didn’t even like Bobby Cannavale in this might be the biggest sign of how much I absolutely detested Superintelligence.

There are movies you might hate when you see them in theaters but later realize that they’re probably funny enough cable. That is Superintelligence, except for the funny part. What else can I say except that “Superintelligence” is not a term I'd use for whoever greenlit this piece of crap.

Also debuting on HBO Max this week is the new thriller series The Flight Attendant (HBO MAX), starring Kaley Cuoco, who really hasn’t been doing much outside The Big Bang Theory, so this should give her a chance to show how funny she is. She plays a woman who wakes up in the wrong hotel and wrong bed with a dead man, so it already sounds like a great premise right there. I guess the entire first season will debut on Thanksgiving.

And yet, believe it or not, Superintelligence isn’t even the worst movie of the week! Nope.

Apparently, Josh Duhamel’s new comedy, BUDDY GAMES (Saban Films/Paramount), played in some theaters over the weekend, but it’s now available on digital and On Demand. It’s Duhamel’s directorial debut, and it’s about as dude-bro as you can possibly get, as it has Duhamel, Dax Sheppard, Kevin Dillon, Nick Swardson, Jensen Ackles and Dan Bakkedahl as a group man-children friends who regroup five years after going their separate ways to bring back their “Buddy Games,” a series of obstacle and endurance tests that end up reviving ill feelings between a few of them.

I’m not sure how quickly I knew I was in trouble with this one, because at first, I thought that maybe Duhamel made a fun indie comedy about friendship ala the underrated A Good Old Fashioned Orgy. It didn’t take me long to realize that I was wrong as wrong could be, since by the halfway point it turned into something as innately immature as Jackass.

The general idea is that Duhamel plays Bob, the guy who found enormous success after splitting from his friends, marrying Olivia Munn’s Tiffany, but then he finds out that his old friend Shelly (Bakkedahl) has been put in rehab for a drug overdose. Turns out that at the last Buddy Game, Swardson’s character shot Shelly in the nuts with a BB gun, and he eventually lost his other testicle as well. That’s about the level of this low-brow comedy that rarely fails to grab the lowest hanging…um… fruit.

As it goes along, it just gets worse and worse to the point where there was one scene where the guys are at a bar while trying to get girls to buy them drinks that just got so disgusting, I almost turned it off. If I did, I would have missed the scene with a gila monster going after steaks strapped to the heads in another lame competition.

I can go on and on about how Buddy Games is but probably the worst infraction is that it does the most sexist thing possible by basically putting having women for a few moments and none that particularly advance anything.

Duhamel isn’t a bad director, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he got hired to direct another comedy someday soon, but this movie just very bad, very gross and almost excruciating to sit through at times. To call Buddy Games moronic, idiotic or even asinine, would be an insult to the morons, idiots or asses, who are likely to be the movie’s target audience.

On Friday, New York’s Metrograph is bringing back the 2017 4k restoration of Fruit Chan’s Made in Hong Kong as a ticketed screening running from Friday through December 3. You can also still catch Shalini Kantaya’s Coded Bias and the French New Wave anthology Six In Paris as ticketed screenings through December 3.

Up at New York’s Lincoln Center, you can catch its World of Wong Kar Wai with a couple films available this Wednesday, including his fantastic drama In the Mood for Love, but you can also get the 7-film Janus Bundle for $70 which is a saving over the individual movie cost of $12 apiece. Those seven films and five more will be shown over the course of December.

Other stuff out this week that I wasn’t able to get to include:

The Christmas Chronicles 2 (Netflix) Last Call (K Street Pictures) Faith (Vertical) Saul and Ruby’s Holocaust Survivor Band (Samuel Goldwyn) The Walrus and the Whistle Blower (Gravitas Ventures) Life in a Year (Amazon Prime) 32 Weeks

Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone!

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

#TheWeekendWarrior #Movies #Reviews #Zappa #MaRaineysBlackBottom #HappiestSeason #GettingToKnowYou #VOD #Streaming #Superintelligence #BuddyGames

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dry-valleys · 4 years

Photo

Chib remembered Leith when it had been all about the docks and the hard men, drinking dens with knocking shops upstairs and tattoo parlours along the street with wraps of speed under the counter for those in the know.

There was still that side to it, but a lot of the dockside had been spruced up, style bars opening, bonded warehouses turned into flats. Chib often wondered what happened to the old-timers when these makeovers took place. All across the city, neighbourhoods were changing. Where Chib lived, there hadn’t been any houses at all until ten or twelve years back. Now it had its own railway station. Sometimes it was hard to keep up. Ian Rankin, Doors Open. Leith's position commanding the Firth of Forth and the route between Scandinavia and the city, the castle and inland Scotland ensured that it would always be a battleground; the first recorded reference in history was in 1128.

Between 1544 and 1549 King Henry VIII of England waged war on the then-independent state of Scotland, as he objected to the Scottish state reneging on an agreement that the infant Mary Queen of Scots (born 1542) should marry his son, Edward (born 1537). Instead of this she was in 1558 married to French prince Francois (born 1544, died 1560, having briefly been King of France from 1559) and lived in France

Mary, who had nominally ruled Scotland since her father James V died when she was six days old, went back to Scotland and began ruling, immediately causing offence by following her Catholic faith.

The English attacked and conquered Leith in 1547, recognising its importance as Edinburgh’s port, only for the French to attack Leith, cast out the English, and establish themselves in Scotland, as defenders or invaders (according to which Scot you asked).

While many Catholic and traditionalist Scots suppoted the 'Auld Alliance' with France, the new Protestant party (please visit John Knox House and St. Giles for more on them) wanted a new alliance with England and supported removing the French; these largely achieved their aims after the 1560 Treaty of Edinburgh brought about peace between England, France and Scotland with the French out and Scotland brought within the English orbit.

(Much more about Mary and her second husband Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, with her controversial life, death, and heirs, in future posts).

In this sense, the siege of Leith was more like a battle between Scots with foreign powers weighing in on both sides rather than an English attack on Sotland. The same happened in a bizarre conflict in 1571-73, where Leith was garrisoned by men who supported her son and heir James VI (later James I of England), and Edinburgh by men still loyal to their queen, who had been driven into exile in 1567 but still lived, until she was executed by Elizabeth I of England in 1588.

In the British Civil Wars, Leith likewise saw action, as the forces of General David Leslie, a former Parliamentary supporter, switched sides to the future Charles II, but were defeated by the armies of Oliver Cromwell, who conquered Scotland in 1651, as they had earlier conquered England.

After Cromwell’s death in 1658, Charles set out in earnest to rule over England and Scotland, which he achieved in 1660; though there was much more upheaval and bloodshes, little happened at Leith and the Act of Union between England and Scotland in 1707 set it on its peacetime course.

Leith became a great port of a great imperial city and the international trade, and the seagoing life it opened up, is reflected in a Scandinavian church set up in 1863 by Johan Court Hardmans, though doubtless some sailors preferred to follow their this-worldly interests in the drinking dens & fleshpots which were then to be found in Leith, an independent burgh which was not incorporated into Edinburgh until 1920.

Queen Victoria, who loved Edinburgh and Scotland, deemed Leith ‘not a pretty town’, but this was a sign of its breakneck expansion and the wealth which the hard-living men and women helped generate for Britain and the port boomed, especially after being connected to the railway in 1842.

Problems began to set in after World War 1 (to be covered in another post) and the Great Depression, with Leith in seemingly terminal decline.

But Leith boomed after World War 2 and the postwar governments had, seemingly for all time, ended the traditional poverty and put a spring back into the dockyard. Sadly, Thatcherism & austerity put paid to this and Leith became a byword for industrial decay, so that Trainspotting (1993 novel, 1996 film) by Irvine Welsh was set here.

Leith now is partly regenerated; Chib, an especially nasty villain, preferred to use outer-city housing estates rather than Leith to find mooks as by 2008 there was no longer anyone rough enough in Leith, a process which has continued.

“Leith itself had changed. There were more Michelin restaurants there than in the city centre. It made Chib wonder what the Trainspotting tours made of the place”.

This new confidence is seen in developments like (3) Waterfront Plaza and (5) upmarket new housing, alongside traditional industries like (6) Chancelot Flour Mill, on that site since 1970, and the shipping, which as you can see roars on.

Unlike in the city centre there were still a number of drunken and belligerent roasters still to be found, mixed in awkwardly with the regeneration, but they were more wee bastards than anything dangerous and I felt comfortable walking down the Water of Leith (2 is its outflow) from the botanic gardens and there's no doubt that the 21st could be Leith's century and I'll be back to see it.

#photos #edinburgh #scotland #ecosse #leith

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apocalypseprodromus · 4 years

Note

What were the first impressions of the boys towards YN? Like the ones she met before like Nine and Squall?

Noctis didn’t know why he had to play with all of these spoiled, mean kids, but he desperately wanted to avoid them all. The moment Y/n gave him a fruit roll-up though, he decided that she was okay.

Prompto didn’t have the best self-image as a child, so when a kid from a noble family took notice of him he was so confused and scared of being lead on. He was very wary, but soon found someone who took him for what he was. He wanted to be better for her, she deserved that at least.

Gladiolus didn’t know what to make of this tiny girl in front of him. This wasn’t who he was supposed to learn to protect, right? It wasn’t until she started learning to fight that it dawned on him that she’s probably going to be a defender of the future king, just like him.

Ignis wasn’t sure if he was supposed to take care of the prince’s new friend as well as the prince himself, but here he was, giving this girl the same attention as the prince. At least when he’s cooking food for them, Y/n isn’t as picky an eater as the prince.

Machina didn’t really think that anyone else caught his attention other than Rem, but this girl who is getting transferred to Class Zero is adorable. He’s amazed when he learns the isn’t from Orience at all. The only cadets that come from outside Rubrum are powerful ones.

Ace wasn’t sure this girl belonged in Class Zero but no one did at first. It wasn’t until one of them needed to be revived that he realized why she was here. Tried not to get on her bad side ever since. If someone can revive you, then try to get in their good books. She’s also cute, which helps.

Trey has never seen this girl before, so what does he do? Ask her an unbroken barrage of questions, that’s what. So she’s from out of Akademeia? That’s a red flag and now he has questions for Arecia. The gears are turning in his head. Her arrival is signaling of changes to Class Zero.

Eight was certain the girl was going to need some training but stood corrected during their first mission together. Holy... he wasn’t expecting her to be able to cut a bloody swath through Militesi frontlines like that much less but able to hold her own. Reminded him never to judge a book by it’s cover.

Nine was off-put by this girl joining the class. Like who was this cute little thing and why is she here? He doesn’t mind, he’s just confused. Tries to protect her during their first mission, ends up playing a game of keep-up with her instead. Major respect was earned.

Jack just shrugged his shoulders and proceeded to gauge her sense of humor. When she shot back a sarcastic reply, he was the one laughing. He liked her already.

King only cared if she could avoid getting killed or getting anyone else killed. Once he learned that she could do both very well, he was more at ease about her presence. It’s good to get more competent fighters in the class. Ones from outside Orience help ease his mind about the thought of spy infiltration by Militesi forces. He needs to stop listening to Naghi’s stupid conspiracies.

Tidus looked at the girl standing beside Auron. She looked more out of place then he did, and that was saying something. When she started to question him about blitzball he stared wide-eyed at her. “You’ve never heard of blitzball?!” “I’m not from here, dork!” That explained it. Perhaps they’re both out of their element.

Snow didn’t hesitate to welcome her Cocoon, acting as a bit of a tour guide around Bodhum much to the dismay and amusement of Lightning and Serah respectively. When Y/n started to display her interest in fighting the native fauna of Cocoon, Snow was worried she could get herself hurt. “Bitch, I’m a war veteran!” And she showed him.

Hope was glad that he wasn’t the only kid with something to prove, so he understood. Became a fan of her’s when she showed just how capable she was. Certainly developed a crush on her early on.

Noel thanked the fal’Cie she was from Eos and not Cocoon. Didn’t want to risk falling for a viper of Lindzei’s stock. The fact that she just happens to be a good warrior helped with his opinion of her.

Squall was sent to retrieve her to bring to Cid’s office, not to save her from Seifer’s frivolous bullshit. No one else seemed to buy that, instead opting to imply that the two might be dating. Sure, she’s cute but damn if it’s not pissing him off to hear those stupid rumors. Balamb cadets love their gossip. It only gets worse when she gets put into his squad. But it’s not her fault, so he can only blame himself.

Zell heard the rumors that the new girl was probably with Squall so he decides to investigate a little. When he learns that the two aren’t together he still teases them, because when else does he get to see Squall blush like that? Not to mention how flustered Y/n gets. If Squall isn’t planning on dating her, his loss.

Irvine congratulates Squall on hooking a cutie and receives a frustrated growl in return. That’s how Irvine can tell that they aren’t together, who could be mad that there dating someone like that? When he figures that out, he whispers ‘It’s free real estate’, and proceeds to flirt with her instead. After all, one man’s lost opportunity is another one’s chance.

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livinginlandmarketing · 3 years

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A mall can’t catch a virus, but COVID-19 still could kill hundreds of U.S. shopping centers if vacancy rates keep rising, a recent report by Barclays Investment Bank said.

“Retailers have been losing foot traffic for years as e-commerce takes an increasing share of sales,” Barclays reported. “COVID-19 has sharply accelerated this trend.”

Fifteen percent of mall stores have closed this year, the report says. If that trend persists, 15-17% of malls will fail and may need to be redeveloped for other uses.

And the most likely uses — such as low-density residential or e-commerce warehouses — won’t be as valuable as the former malls, impacting local government revenue.

We asked retail consultant Greg Stoffel how that trend is playing out in Southern California.

Q: What happens to ghost malls after the shoppers vanish?

A: In many cases, these malls are poorly located, out of the mainstream and have succumbed over time to centers that are better located and have better quality stores, restaurants and anchors.

Even before COVID-19, and before online shopping became prominent, there were too many shopping centers of all kinds relative to actual buying power in most market areas. Over time, many of these centers tend to lose quality tenants and replace them with tenants who lack the ability to generate customer traffic.

Q: What Southern California malls already have been or are being redeveloped?

A: Indio Fashion Mall, Hawthorne Plaza Mall, the Carousel Mall in San Bernardino, The Quad and Whittwood malls in Whittier, Laguna Hills Mall (which is being rebranded as the Village at Laguna Hills), Valley Plaza in North Hollywood, The City Shopping Center in Orange (which became The Block at Orange and then re-positioned as The Outlets at Orange), and Riverside Plaza.

Q: How are they are being reused?

A: Most owners and potential developers look to a combination of non-retail uses. This includes residential, office, mixed-use developments, fulfillment centers, etc., that include a little of everything like retail, dining and entertainment.

A good example is Westminster Downtown in Westminster, Colorado. What was a ghost mall was largely demolished and is now being re-developed as a mixed-use downtown with residential, hotels and offices with dining, entertainment and retail on the ground floor.

Q: How are redeveloped malls in our region being reused?

A: The Village at Laguna Hills (briefly called the Five Lagunas) will be the most dramatic. The mix will include a hotel, office space, apartments and retail and dining and a large movie theatre (depending on the future of movie-going).

Hawthorne Plaza closed in 1999 and still sits empty. Various plans have been proposed for the property but nothing has happened so far.

Riverside Plaza was originally an open-air center that was remodeled into an enclosed center. Due to department store closures, the center was remodeled into an open-air center again. Today it has Trader Joe’s, Vons Grocery, Regal Cinemas, Nordstrom Rack and several restaurants.

Q: Which Southern California Malls are at most risk of closing due to COVID-19?

A: I am not sure that any malls would close based only on the impact of COVID-19. The pandemic may accelerate the demise of a center or two, but there were likely already problems in generating sufficient sales.

Gregory Stoffel is a retail analyst who’s spent years analyzing malls in California. (Courtesy of Stoffel)

Q: Barclays said some of the new developments aren’t as valuable as malls, with valuations dropping 60-90%. Is that the case here?

A: If a bad mall can’t be redeveloped with a mixture of uses, yes the property values will decline.

This decline was likely already in process with taxable sales declining due to changing consumer preferences and patronage patterns. Cities are trying to hold on to whatever taxable sales can be generated and sometimes have unrealistic ideas on what a property can generate in the future.

Q: Looking 10 to 20 years down the road, will malls like South Coast Plaza, Fashion Island, the Beverly Center and Ontario Mills still be around? If so, how will they be different than today?

A: Most malls will need to downsize their retail space as customer shopping patterns continue to evolve. There will be more of a premium on experience as well as unique merchandise.

Millennials will be older and Gen Z customers will have a big influence on shopping, dining and entertainment trends.

Larger, well-located premier malls will modify their tenant mix over time to include even more diverse tenant types. This will continue to be at the expense of lesser quality centers.

Centers like Fashion Island and Irvine Spectrum Center should be able to evolve as they offer outdoor environments and have the ability to offer a diverse range of authentic experiences and social interactions.

Larger upscale enclosed centers like South Coast Plaza and Beverly Center will likely need to reduce their retail footprint over time as upscale retailers evolve their business models to combine online and in-store retailing.

GREG STOFFEL

Title: Principal

Organization: Stoffel & Associates

Residence: Temecula

Education: Bachelor’s degree in communications, Cal State Fullerton

Previous experience: Consulting on retail/dining/entertainment projects since 1988, working on over 90 master-planned developments, cities and towns, as well as over 400 individual retail, dining and entertainment projects throughout the U.S. Some of his best known projected included Downtown Disney, the Irvine Spectrum Center, Fashion Island and CityWalk.

FIVE FACTS ABOUT GREG STOFFEL

Married for 40 years, with two children and two grandchildren

Recently resettled in the Temecula wine country after 30 years in Irvine

Loves to golf, hike, fish, travel, work on home improvements and spend time with family and friends.

He’s a stiff competitor at golf, cornhole, darts, horseshoes and cards.

He has remodeled several kitchens, bathrooms and recently renovated his guest house.

‘Long-overdue’ shakeout of U.S. malls heats up as foot traffic plummets

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Prop. 19: State offers guidance on new property tax transfer law

-on January 03, 2021 at 01:00AM by Jeff Collins

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hlseydaily · 8 months

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July 9, 2022 | Halsey performing at the Love and Power Tour Irvine!

#halsey #dailyhalsey #halseydaily #halseysource #hotelhalsey #halseyroom #concert #love and power tour #love and power tour irvine #irvine

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automaticvr · 4 years

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388 Irvine Ln Franklin TN 37064 | Susan Salazar Susan Salazar Susan has been working as a Realtor with Keller Williams Realty since Jan. 2004 and specializes in single family and new construction sales. She loves helping both buyers and sellers make their real estate dreams a reality. [email protected] 6154061314 https://ift.tt/2XUCmsO https://ift.tt/3czJ2SA https://ift.tt/2XtsMOD 388 Irvine Ln Franklin TN 37064 | Susan Salazar Why Choose Real 3d space? When you power your business with interactive 3D media, the possibilities are endless. No matter what industry you're in, you can enable deeply immersive virtual exploration that can be delivered to anyone, anywhere with Matterport's technology. Via Real 3d space our Matterport Service Partners, it's quick and easy to add professional, quality, and complete 3D scanning services to any space you have in mind, for any industry. Real 3D Space | 615 243 2891 Real 3d Space - 360 Degree Virtual Tours | Video | Photography Phone: (615) 615-243-2891Facebook: https://ift.tt/2qswLr7 Twitter: https://twitter.com/real3dspace Google+: https://ift.tt/2pLtkzK Pinterest: https://ift.tt/2qsDFwI Instagram: https://ift.tt/2pLmdY5 What is 3D Scanning & Interior Mapping In Nashville TN ? https://ift.tt/2qswVPp Virtual Reality https://ift.tt/1I3M8wD Restaurant 3d Photography Real Estate Photography Real Estate Photography Nashville TN Virtual Realty Virtual Realty Nashville TN 3d Room Scanning 3d Room Scanning Nashville TN This Video: https://ift.tt/2AvK8Bs 388 Irvine Ln Franklin TN 37064 | Susan Salazar Real 3D Space | 615 243 2891

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hillbillyhippiemusicreview · 5 years

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POST #19 - Tyler Childers - Builds His Country Squire One Song at a Time

How do you follow up the break out record, Purgatory?

You release what visual artist, Jimbo Valentine (more on him in a minute) called “Dark Side of the Holler”.

Tyler Childers released his sophomore album, Country Squire on August 2nd. A collection of 9 songs that seamlessly transition from one to the next with the help of Miles Miller (Sturgill Simpson) on drums, Stuart Duncan (various artists) on banjo, fiddle, and mandolin, and Russ Pahl (various artists) on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, pedal steel, jaw harp, and baritone. With Childers raw writing talent and distinctive voice, the album takes the basis of Purgatory to another level. Childers returns with producers Sturgill Simpson and David Ferguson.

The album opens with the title track, “Country Squire”. Childers has honed this tune over the past few tours and it is pure country gold. The verses go back and forth between Childers’ plans for his wife and their future home and the road dog life he knows so well. The chorus hits hard, “Spendin’ my nights in a bar room Lord, turnin’ them songs into two by fours”. The song harkens back to Merle Haggard’s, “Working Mans Blues” and the nights drowning beers in a tavern and working to buy his kids shoes. Where Haggard sings the blues, Childers’ song envisions his future kids playing around the family cabin. Coming full circle, the song starts with a road-dogging lifestyle to buy things for his wife and by the end he’s road dogging in the Country Squire he built for his wife

The second track is another story of a long gone time, this one about riding a school bus up and down a holler. Gone are the days of a bus driver being able to “blister punk kids alive” with a “paddle that he carved from pine”. Many readers may never have had that experience, but I can guarantee you this was everyday life in the not so distant past. Listeners will notice a slower paced version than has been featured on YouTube. The slower tempo and yearning fiddle highlight Childers pining for the “prettiest little girl the same age as me”. The jaw harp is also a nice addition to the track. One thing is for sure, Ray Dixon is not a man to be messed with.

“Bus Route” flows seamlessly into “Creeker”. Last school year my wife decorated her classroom door with words her Senior Home Room students use to describe themselves. Among the normal adjectives sits the word, creekers. While my wife was raised on Turkey Creek, these guys were actually referring to the next creek over, Stinking Creek. They lovingly describe themselves as “Creekers”. I can’t help but think there are a handful of former students out there who are proud as peacocks of having a song about them. “Creeker” features some of my favorite lyrics on Country Squire. I also feel that Creeker is the best representation of Childers’ voice on the record. The live version absolutely slays.

I like to think Gemini is a companion piece to the title track. While “Country Squire” describes life on the road as a means to an end, Gemini describes the author’s love of the road as what his significant other loved about him in the first place. I had to look up the traits of a Gemini as I am not what you call an expert in astrology. I would try to quote some definitions and articles but there is definitely not enough space in this review to include the intricacies. It’s safe to say that the actions written about in this song are a pretty accurate view. When I woke up early on Friday, August 2nd to begin listening to the album I remember posting the lyrics, “Now I’m lit up like a Christmas tree, Check one-two can ya’ll hear me”. As they accurately describe the jubilation I felt when I heard this song for the first time.

I’m glad I decided to review this album after hearing “House Fire” in the early stages of its inception, then polished on Jimmy Fallon, and ultimately a jam session at “Kickin’ It On The Creek”. Childers has his whole Bob Dylan going electric at Newport Folk Festival moment when he broke out a shiny new Telecaster for the tune on The Tonight Show. You can definitely tell the band has been tinkering with the jam since the album was released as there is now an extended jam highlighting Childers electric guitar playing before launching into “House Fire”. What the song lacks in storytelling, it makes up for in musicianship. It seems that every instrument is highlighted, but most notably is the addition of the Hammond B3 organ.

“House Fire” bleeds into the most honky tonk song about masturbation you will ever hear. “Ever Lovin’ Hand” is another song that has been tested out on the road the past few months. Although it seems out of place on a record filled with love letters to Appalachian life. “Ever Lovin’ Hand” is a love letter to Childers’ wife and reaffirms his dedication to her while on the road. One day, not so long ago, my wife was listening to the album on the way home from work when my 11 year old son (both of our youngest love Tyler) asked what the song was about. Most parents would move on to the next tune as quick as possible, not in our house. She asked him to listen again and really pay attention to the lyrics. Needless to say, he figured it out.

“Peace of Mind” is the one song that has drawn the most ire of listeners. A short dive in the YouTube universe will dig up a solo version that is really the inception the song. The solo version is uptempo and seemingly more happy. As I write and listen to the song right now, I can’t help but think that it was slowed down on the album for a purpose. A song about the laments of “what could have been” cannot be an uptempo, happy song. The tempo is perfect for the subject matter. “The days are dark, down in the holler, waiting for the sun to shine” hang up there as another set of lyrical favorites.

“All Your’n” started as another song featuring Childers playing solo acoustic. The album version is another rollicking love letter to his wife. In the vein of “Lady May” that closed the 2017 album “Purgatory”, Childers playful songwriting describes his courtship of his significant other and their love of fried morels. For those that don’t know, a morel is a mushroom (better known as a hickory chicken or dry land fish) that takes a keen eye and perfect conditions to find during a small window in the spring months. The video for “All Your’n is a perfect match to the song featuring Buffalo Wabs and the Price Hill Hustle drummer, singer, and Childers buddy, Casey Campbell stumbling through and Alice in Wonderland style landscape. It is also the introduction to Childers cheetah print wearing alter ego, “Tammy Chiggers”. All Your’n will definitely make its way to weddings and wedding receptions everywhere.

The album closes with a rendition of “Matthew” that introduces Childers brother-in law and father in law. “Matthew” describes a veteran who spends his time “guarding missiles and counting white tail” at the Bluegrass Army Depot between Irvine in Estill County and Richmond, Kentucky. The song is an observation of the lives of two men in Eastern Kentucky. “And he worked them hands to splinters, and he raised them young’uns right, on a little bit of scripture, and an acreage of paradise” is one of the most vivid descriptions of fatherhood I’ve seen put on record. Childers has a way of bringing real life to a song like no one else in music today.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the album artwork done by Kentucky native, Colonel Tony Moore of Walking Dead fame and frequent Childers collaborator, West Virginia artist Jimbo Valentine. The cover art for Country Squire is departure from the hillbilly psychedelic artwork of records past. It is there, though, inside the gatefold with Valentine’s depiction of the original Country Squire. The yin yang-esque artwork would make an amazing framed poster (wink-wink). The album cover designed by Moore is a comic book rendition of a zen hillbilly Childers. It is the most unique album art I’ve seen in quite some time. I am a huge fan of album artwork and this is one of the best. No wording on the cover, simple, powerful.

Give Country Squire a listen. It isn’t Purgatory. It isn’t Bottles and Bibles. It’s the story of a Lawrence County native going to the big city, moving to the country, courting and marrying the love of his life, and a look to a future life pulling behind that 53 year old camper.

You can find Country Squire on all major streaming services or do what I did and order the LP from www.tylerchildersmusic.com

The artwork of Tony Moore can be found at www.coloneltonymoore.com

The artwork of Jimbo Valentine can be found at www.amalgamunlimited.com

-Josh Trosper, Hillbilly Hippie Music Review Contributing Writer

*This is an independent review. The Hillbilly Hippie Music Review was not compensated for this review.

*The opinions expressed are solely that of the author(s).

* This artwork and the quoted lyrics are not ours, nor do we claim the min any way. They are under copyright by Hickman Holler Records, under exclusive license to RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment.

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junker-town · 5 years

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Pac-12 college basketball teams, ranked for the 2019-2020 season

The conference should look significantly different than it did a year ago, which can’t be a bad thing.

For the bulk of the 2018-19 season, the main topic of discussion surrounding Pac-12 basketball was whether or not the league would become the first power conference to send just one representative to the NCAA tournament since the Big Dance expanded to 64 teams.

Ultimately, three Pac-12 squads heard their names called on Selection Sunday. None were seeded better than ninth.

The league will look significantly different in 2019-20. Arizona is widely expected to bounce back from the program’s worst season since 1983-84. After a similarly tumultuous campaign, fellow league flag-bearer UCLA parted ways with head coach Steve Alford and lured Mick Cronin away from Cincinnati. New faces have also popped up at Cal (Mark Fox) and Washington State (Kyle Smith).

The bigger question is whether or not the league will look significantly better in 2019-20. Sean Miller’s squad will be improved, but does “improved” mean going from an 8-10 conference record to a return to top 15 national status in just one year? Washington suddenly appears to be the Pac-12 program with the most stable footing, but dominating the league last year only got them a nine-seed and a 22-point shellacking in the NCAA tournament. In 13 seasons at Cincy, Cronin took the Bearcats to just one Sweet 16 and never made it to a regional final. Alford’s postseason track record was eerily similar when he accepted one of college basketball’s highest-profile coaching gigs back in 2013. What proof is there that this go-round will be any different in Westwood?

The answers — or at least the beginnings of the answers — to all these questions will unfurl this winter on the West Coast.

Let’s take a stab at projecting the 2019-20 Pac-12.

12. CALIFORNIA GOLDEN BEARS

2018-19 Record: (8-23, 3-15)

2018-19 Big East Finish: 12th

The most interesting thing about Cal last season was the debate over whether or not the Bears were the worst power conference team in the history of college basketball. The team likely avoided that dubious distinction by winning three of their last four regular season games (including a stunning upset of conference champion Washington), but that run ultimately wasn’t enough to save Wyking Jones’ job.

Former Georgia coach Mark Fox is the new front man Berkeley. An already tall task for Fox was immediately made taller when leading scorers Justice Sueing and Darius McNeill opted to transfer out of the program. A pair of experienced guards — senior PG Paris Austin and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi grad transfer Kareem South — will be relied on heavily as Cal looks to begin the process of distancing itself from the last two disastrous seasons.

11. WASHINGTON STATE COUGARS

2018-19 Record: (11-21, 4-14)

2018-19 Big East Finish: 11th

Another Pac-12 newcomer is Washington State’s Kyle Smith, who brings his “nerdball” to Pullman after successful stints at Columbia and San Francisco. Smith will lean heavily on small forward CJ Elleby (14.7 ppg, 7.1 rpg) whose very solid freshman season was blanketed by Wazzou’s dismal final year under Ernie Kent. The Cougars have experience and some promising transfers, but it will likely take at least a year for the fruits of Smith’s analytics-heavy labor to become visible.

10. STANFORD CARDINAL

2018-19 Record: (15-16, 8-10)

2018-19 Big East Finish: T-8th

There might not be a Pac-12 coach under more pressure to exceed expectations this season than Jerod Haase. Haase is 48-49 over his first three seasons at Stanford, and the Cardinal haven’t even sniffed a trip to the NCAA tournament under his watch. Youth and the defection of star Reid Travis to Kentucky provided something of an excuse for an underwhelming 2018-19 campaign, but a similar winter in year four is unlikely to be met with similar acceptance. Haase’s job was made even tougher when leading scorer KZ Okpala (drafted 32nd overall by the Miami Heat) opted to forego his final two years of collegiate eligibility in favor of beginning his professional career.

9. UTAH UTES

2018-19 Record: (17-14, 11-7)

2018-19 Big East Finish: 3rd

On paper, it makes sense to have Utah this low. The Utes lost four of their top six scorers from a good, not great 2018-19 squad, and have no proven talent in the backcourt or post. At the same time, Larry Krystkowiak seems to do his best work when expectations are at their lowest. Because of that phenomenon and only that phenomenon, it wouldn’t be a shock to see this team finish in the top half of the final league standings.

8. OREGON STATE BEAVERS

2018-19 Record: (18-13, 10-8)

2018-19 Big East Finish: T-4th

Tres Tinkle (20.8 ppg, 8.1 rpg) opted to spurn the NBA in favor of playing one more season for his father, and as a result seems the most likely candidate to be named the Pac-12’s preseason Player of the Year. Tinkle’s return plus the return of junior guard Ethan Thompson (13.7 ppg, 3.9 apg) gives the Beavers at least a shot getting back to the NCAA tournament, an event where they haven’t won a game since 1982.

7. UCLA BRUINS

2018-19 Record: (17-16, 9-9)

2018-19 Big East Finish: 7th

So begins the trend of teams in the middle of this conference that feel nearly impossible to predict.

The Bruins have experienced talent as well as a pair of well-regarded newcomers (point guard Tyger Campbell and big man Shareef O’Neal) who both had to sit out what was supposed to be their freshman season a year ago because of injuries. The question is how quickly can this roster and new head coach Mick Cronin gel. Cronin’s Cincinnati teams were notorious for winning low-scoring games thanks to their tough-nosed defense. That hasn’t exactly been UCLA’s reputations in the years since Ben Howland’s firing in 2013.

Does Cronin alter his approach to play to his new gig? Do the players he has inherited fully buy-in? The pieces are certainly there for Cronin to have as special a first season as any new head coach in the country, but the questions are too abundant and too weighted to predict that’s what’s going to happen.

6. USC TROJANS

2018-19 Record: (16-17, 8-10)

2018-19 Big East Finish: T-8th

USC figures to be as talented as just about any team in the Pac-12 this season, but that statement also felt true a year ago. Injuries, chemistry issues and off-court distractions resulted in that team finishing with a sub-.500 overall record and conference record.

Center Nik Rakocevic should be a first team All-Pac-12 selection, and he’s going to be surrounded by guys who should be able to light it up from the outside. Five-star freshman Isaiah Mobley and grad transfers Quinton Adlesh and Daniel Utomi provide an injection of skill and much-needed new blood that should help USC turn the page from back-to-back disappointing seasons.

Andy Enfield already has a commitment from Evan Mobley, Isaiah’s brother and the No. 1 overall player in the class of 2020. Trojan fans are hopeful that they won’t have to be continually reminding themselves of this fact throughout January and February.

5. ARIZONA STATE SUN DEVILS

2018-19 Record: (23-11, 12-6)

2018-19 Big East Finish: 2nd

Though his teams themselves have been a bit erratic, Bobby Hurley has established a bit of consistency in Tempe, making the NCAA tournament in each of the last two seasons. In order to extend that streak to three, he’ll need the backcourt duo of junior Remy Martin and senior Rob Edwards to shoulder more of the offensive load than they did when they were aided by departed all-conference honorees Zylan Cheatham and Luguentz Dort.

Even with Cheatham and Dort gone, Hurley figures to field an experienced starting lineup comprised of three juniors, one senior and one sophomore. Talented freshmen Jaelen House and Elias Valtonen could also push for spots in that starting five.

4. OREGON DUCKS

2018-19 Record: (25-13, 10-8)

2018-19 Big East Finish: T-4th

Oregon was one of the biggest losers of the draft declaration period of the offseason, with both Louis King and Kenny Wooten making somewhat surprising decisions to join Bol Bol in bolting for the professional ranks. Those defections took the Ducks from being a top 15 squad in just about everyone’s “way too early rankings,” to one receiving virtually no preseason top 25 love.

Still, Dana Altman and company have appeared in and won at least one game in six of the last seven NCAA tournaments, and there are reason to believe that trend will continue in 2020. Payton Pritchard is back to run the show after a terrific junior season where he saved his best basketball for the sport’s most important month. He should receive significant help from the additions of five-star freshman C.J. Walker and UNLV grad transfer Shakur Juiston (10.8 ppg, 8.8 rpg).

3. ARIZONA WILDCATS

2018-19 Record: (17-15, 8-10)

2018-19 Big East Finish: T-8th

Arizona fans are hopeful that they never have to go through a season like 2018-19 again, both in terms of win/loss record and off-court drama. When the final horn sounded in Tucson last March, the Wildcats had finished with their worst overall record in more than three decades and many believed their head coach was on his way out. Five months later, optimism is high that 2018-19 was a one-year sentence to college basketball purgatory, and that the Wildcats will be back in their familiar role of chasing a trip to the Final Four in 2019-20.

That optimism took a hit earlier this week when it was announced that sophomore guard Brandon Williams will miss the entire season because of a knee injury. Williams was one of the few bright spots for Arizona last season, starting 21 games and averaging 11.4 points and 3.4 assists per contest as a freshman.

Williams’ injury puts even more pressure on the much-heralded freshman point guard Nico Mannion. It also elevates the importance of UC Irvine grad transfer Max Hazzard, who was the star of the Anteaters’ upset of fourth-seeded Kansas State in last year’s NCAA tournament. Josh Green and Zeke Nnaji — the other major members of Sean Miller’s top five recruiting class — will join up with senior Chase Jeter to form what should be one of the top frontcourts in the Pac-12.

2. COLORADO BUFFALOES

2018-19 Record: (23-13, 10-8)

2018-19 Big East Finish: T-4th

Let the record note that Colorado came very, very close to holding down the top spot in these rankings. The Buffaloes haven’t won more than a single game in the NCAA tournament since all the way back in 1955. Tad Boyle has assembled a roster that has at least a shot at altering that dubious bit of history.

After a rough January, Colorado finished last year’s regular season by winning 10 of its final 13 games. They then parlayed that hot streak into a pair of NIT wins before falling to eventual tournament champion Texas in the quarterfinals.

Every major contributor from that team is back, which should result in Boyle fielding a starting lineup comprised of all juniors and seniors. Point guard McKinley Wright (13.0 ppg, 4.8 apg) and big man Tyler Bey (13.6 ppg, 9.9 rpg) might be the best inside/outside duo in the conference.

1. WASHINGTON HUSKIES

2018-19 Record: (27-9, 15-3)

2018-19 Big East Finish: 1st

Washington ran away with the Pac-12’s regular season title last season, winning its first 10 conference games and finishing a full three games clear of second-place Arizona State in the final league standings. The top four scorers from that team are gone, but there are still plenty of reasons to believe that Mike Hopkins can keep the Huskies at the top of the Pac-12 standings in 2019-20.

For starters, Washington brings in two of the top eight players in the 2019 recruiting class with five-star frontcourt talents Jaden McDaniels and Isaiah Stewart. They’ll add another former five-star talent in December when Kentucky transfer guard Quade Green becomes eligible. Junior guard Nahziah Carter got lost in the shuffle at times last season, but has the ability to thrive in an expanded role this year.

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