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mrepstein · 3 years

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The Beatles Book Monthly (No. 5, December 1963)

‘A TALE OF FOUR BEATLES’ by Billy Shepherd

PART IV (PART I // PART II // PART III)

Part IV opens in June, 1961 and charts Brian Epstein's early involvement with the Beatles.

And so the Beatles, with two experience-garnering trips to Germany behind them, got back to Liverpool. A swingin’ scene... and they were very much a part of it. It was the end of June, 1961.

But though they liked having more money to spend, they hadn’t the foggiest idea of just how much they were worth. The offers came in. Anything between £6 and £14 was the pay-packet, to be shared between Messrs. Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and drummer Pete Best.

“We just didn’t know,” admits George. “We loved the work, the excitement. We didn’t realise we were often being exploited. But it was hard work and somehow we didn’t seem to have much money in the kitty after we’d kept our equipment up to scratch...”

July, 1961, could go down as a summit meeting in Merseybeat history. A steamy, summery, shimmery night at Litherland Town Hall. A young promoter named Brian Kelly announced his attraction: The Beatmakers.

George Harrison was on lead guitar. Paul McCartney on rhythm. John Lennon on piano. Drummers were Pete Best and Freddie Marsden. Les Maguire operated on saxophone, Les Chadwick on bass guitar - and Gerry Marsden nipped on and off behind a big grin to take the vocals.

Gerry and the Pacemakers and the Beatles had linked up. For one night only and for a fee which is the smallest fraction of what they’d command for such a show now.

It led to friendships between the group members... but it didn’t seem to be leading to that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for the Beatles.

Says John: “We went on knocking ourselves out night after night but somehow there was a bit of frustration creeping in to it all. It didn’t seem to be leading anywhere.”

But the audiences were greatly appreciative.

Says Paul: “We started accepting dates further south. We got pretty near London on some of them. No change of material for us - still the stuff that went down so well in Germany. But we were veering away from the leather gear. Don’t make this sound big-headed, but the fact is that a lot of other groups were copying the way we looked on stage. So we changed to more ordinary clothes for a while.”

But in September, depression set in. Paul and John took themselves off to Paris for a holiday. They remember being flat broke. Remember having to search through every pocket to rake up enough francs for a Coke. Now, of course, they can go where they please and not count the cost.

And George and Pete stayed on in Liverpool, virtually lost to the Beat scene. Ray McFall, owner of the Cavern Club remembers seeing Messrs. Harrison and Best around the lunch-time sessions but they seemed dispirited. They took a lot of persuading even to join in on the impromptu roar-ups.

Let well-known Liverpool show compere Bob Wooler fill in the background to this black spot in the Beatles’ history.

“I’ve known the boys since the early days. I’ve been a long-time admirer. What they really needed was a manager in those far-off days. They seemed content not to argue about the fees they were offered. And they didn’t seem to realise that they were pulling in crowds on the strength of their own name and performance.

“After all, they had to live. They had to look after their equipment - and they often had travelling expenses to pay. It’s all very well being popular and enjoying your work, but you should be paid what you’re worth as well.

“Ray McFall at the Cavern was different. If the crowd was good, he upped the fee. That’s why the boys have always been so loyal to the Cavern. But you can understand them being puzzled at the lack of hard cash from their other venues where they were so often doubling the attendances.”

Paul and John were meanwhile spending a lot of time on their song-writing. You’ll see how much they’d already achieved in this direction as the story pushes on to the first recording days.

John and Paul could never sit down and simply write a song to order. They admit: “We have to wait for the ideas to arrive. It can happen anywhere. On a bus, or a train, or backstage at a dance-hall or theatre. Sometimes the title suggests itself first. Then we get going on the words and music. Sometimes we’ve finished a very successful seller in less than an hour.”

But their most pressing need was for a manager. Paul has told me “When we first started on paid jobs, we honestly thought we weren’t manageable. We thought nobody would want to bother with us. We were a pretty off-beat bunch of characters, to say the least. And we had a sense of humour which somehow involved us all and which was hardly in the interests of discipline. So, for a long time, we just didn’t take any notice of the advice that we should be properly handled. ‘Who’d WANT US,’ was the way we thought...

“And that’s where we were wrong...”

A MANAGER. Liverpool man Allan Williams took on the chore for a while... he now runs the Blue Angel Club on Merseyside.

But the man who was to make show business history with the Beatles knew nothing about the group in that September of 1961. That man, of course, was Brian Epstein, one-time drama student, member of a family which owned a chain of furniture and radio-TV stores in Liverpool.

He was not exactly WITH the beat scene. But he WAS in touch with the public taste through his work in the record department of the stores. He’d been there for five years, building up the business, enlarging the staff roster and increasing the turnover.

And in September, 1961, he was a puzzled man. Fans kept approaching him with: “Have you any records by the Beatles?” Brian mused. Pondered. Wondered. One young lad was particularly persistent in his demands. Brian dug deep into the record-lists. And found reference to that “My Bonnie” single, recorded in Germany, on which the Beatles played a strictly supporting role to guitar-star Tony Sheridan.

“I became Beatle-conscious for a while,” he says. “I always tried to work on the theory that the customer was right - and if they wanted the Beatles, well... I’d do my best to supply the Beatles. Eventually I traced the source and ordered some 200 copies for the record-stores. They sold quickly...

“Then out of the blue I heard they were Liverpool boys, had a rapidly-growing following - and were actually playing in a club near the store. It was a place that I’m sure I’d visited before, a sort of teenage gathering-place, but I really didn’t know much about it.

“After a while, I thought I’d better pop down there and see what all the fuss was about.”

Brian Epstein went to the Cavern. Met the Beatles. And things really started happening for the ambitious but not-too-sure group.

There are two ways of looking at this near-historic meeting. Brian Epstein’s. And the Beatles’ viewpoint.

Beatles first. Said George: “He started talking to us about the record that had created the demand. We didn’t know much about him but he seemed very interested in us and also a little bit baffled.

“He came back several times and talked to us. It seemed there was something he wanted to say, but he wouldn’t come out with it. He just kind of watched us and studied what we were doing. One day, he took us to the store and introduced us. We thought he looked rather red and embarrassed about it all.

“Eventually, he started talking about becoming our manager. Well, we hadn’t really had anybody actually VOLUNTEER in that sense. At the same time, he was very honest about it all - you know, like saying he didn’t really know anything about managing a group like us. He sort of hinted that he was keen if we’d go along with him...”

Brian, quite honestly, thought that the Beatles looked a mess. He wondered what exactly they thought they were trying to be. Their strange jackets, the rather scruffy jeans, the hair-styles, which could only have been styled on something called “chaos.”

“But there was something enormously attractive about them,” he recalls. “I liked the way they worked and the obvious enthusiasm they put into their numbers. People talk about the Liverpool sound but I sometimes wonder what exactly they mean. These boys put everything into their routines but they didn’t use echo. That struck me as being a very good thing.

“It was the boys themselves, though, who really swung it. Each had something which I could see would be highly commercial if only someone could push it to the top. They were DIFFERENT characters but they were so obviously part of the whole. Quite frankly, I was excited about their prospects, provided some things could be changed.”

And Brian told his friends: “This could easily turn out to be the biggest show business attraction since Elvis Presley.” It’s a tribute to his foresight and intuition that that is precisely what has happened.

Brian decided to get the boys together at a round-table conference at his store. A time was fixed and the boys agreed. But Beatles are not always the easiest of people to organise. Brian sat waiting... and waiting... and waiting. He was trying to cope with the vastly complex figures of Christmas orders for the store and minutes were precious to him.

Eventually THREE Beatles arrived. George, John and Pete. No Paul. Story goes that Brian got George to ring through and see what had happened to the left-handed guitar-star. And that Paul admitted he was still in the bath... but wouldn’t be long!

Brian was rather on his high-horse. He felt it was not the right thing for someone who wanted to talk business to be kept waiting. He pointed out that Paul, the cherubic one of the four, would be extremely late. “Yes,” said George, forcing back a grin. “But he’ll also be extremely clean.”

Says Brian: “That sense of humour is invaluable. You could hardly feel annoyed at their lack of business ability. They were just four individual and off-beat characters.”

Prior to Brian taking such an interest, there was great concern among Cavern people that there was a chance of the Beatles packing in all thoughts of show business careers. Bob Wooler had tried hard to get BBC television producer Jack Good interested in the group. Jack had produced beat shows, like “Six-Five Special” which had been the stepping-stone to success for artistes like Cliff Richard. But Jack was also in demand in the States... and he’d gone there to further his own career long before Bob could get any decision from the telly-folk.

Brian, having eventually assembled all four Beatles in the same room, put his propositions to them. He went through a process of brain-washing, though he did it all very tactfully. He didn’t like their manner of dress. Wasn’t knocked out by the unruly hair-cuts. Was singularly unimpressed by the way they casually drank tea on stage while in the middle of shows.

He pleaded with them rather than ordered them. He knew they were a valuable property and he was knocked out at the way their personal following was growing through the Merseyside area.

Said John: “He’d tell us that jeans were not particularity smart and could we possibly manage to wear PROPER trousers. But he didn’t want us suddenly looking square. He let us have our own sense of individuality.”

He added: “We respected his views. We stopped champing at cheese rolls and jam butties on stage. We paid a lot more attention to what we were doing. Did our best to be on time. And we smartened up, in the sense that we wore suits instead of any sloppy old clothes.”

It was a master-plan. A long-term plan if necessary but it was aimed at making the most of four young men who clearly had that star quality in them... even though a recording contract was still more than nine months away.

Obviously, Brian Epstein’s main job was to get the group on record. He knew the strength of their popularity in Liverpool and he felt it wouldn’t be a hard job to interest some of the London companies. But that was where Brian was wrong.

He even delayed any sort of action until the results of the 1961 “Mersey Beat Poll” were announced. That came up at the end of the year. And the Beatles were high and dry in top place in this important survey of how the public felt about the myriad groups operating in the scene. Said Brian: “I thought this was the ‘Open Sesame’ to the recording scene. I felt that Liverpool was important enough to have London executives falling about to sign the boys. I was wrong...”

Brian, though technically still in charge of important parts of the family business, threw himself into the job of getting the Beatles known nationally. He had the backing of the Beatles’ parents and it was to be no holds barred for the major break through.

He started visiting London. Hopefully. Optimistically. But record executives showed an alarming tendency to register non-committal gloom. Brian had to keep reporting apparent failure to the boys - by now riding higher than ever in popular acclaim in Liverpool.

Cont’d next month in No. 6

#Brian Epstein #The Beatles #Beatles Book Monthly #1963 #60s #Billy Shepherd

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andromedasstarship · 3 years

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faceless, nameless - the prologue

gif credit - @kylos

pairing - kylo ren x reader

warnings - canon-typical star wars violence, depictions of death/violence, fighting (verbal + physical), loosely implied physical intimacy (really up for interpretation here), angst, tension, implied mild love triangle, kylo ren betrays you

summary - For four years, Kylo Ren considered you to be many things: his right hand, his confidant, an irreplaceable strategist, a friend and most importantly his equal. It all ended when he left you with a blaster shot to the stomach on a near deserted planet. On the brink of death, a rather dashing Resistance Pilot stumbled upon you, saving your life.

Donning a mask to hide your identity, you’ve grown to become the most fearsome Resistance fighter they have; bewildering the First Order as to how you always seem to ruin their plans and avoid capture. Kylo Ren is a different man from when he left you two years ago, so how will he react when he accidentally finds you alive and well in Poe’s memories?

masterlist // series masterlist // read it on ao3 here

next chapter

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the prologue - the sun

On Starkiller Base, there were plenty of rumors as to why Kylo Ren kept you around. Some said it was because of your extensive training in hundreds of different languages, both spoken and signed. Others were sure it was due to your diplomatic upbringing that came with countless connections and near endless wealth. Or, maybe it was due to your more than adequate ability in battle that served him the most. Even some people thought you were a kept woman, who only existed as a way for Kylo Ren to blow off steam behind closed doors. Your favorite rumor was that you were actually a high-ranking Resistance spy who was tasked with infiltrating the First Order at the highest level and that Kylo Ren had become weak because of you. Had it not made you laugh so much the first time you heard it, Kylo would’ve crushed the windpipe of the lowly officer who created the elaborate lie.

Of course, there were some truths in all the rumors, but none of them exciting. You were in fact trained in hundreds of languages and that training was a product of your diplomatic upbringing. You were exceptionally trained in various forms of combat, but that was something that came after you met Kylo; he had always been afraid of you not being able to properly defend yourself. You were most certainly not a kept woman, not that you and Kylo weren’t intimate, but certainly not in the type of dynamic people thought. You absolutely were not a Resistance spy, but even though neither of you said it aloud, Kylo Ren was definitely weak for you.

How it actually happened is quite boring. The two of you met when Kylo had just turned 24, still more Ben Solo than Kylo Ren. You were recently 23 at the time, head of a diplomatic welcoming committee that met with Kylo as part of his first official diplomatic endeavor as ‘Kylo Ren’ the soon to be Commander of the entire First Order. He quickly became enamored with you and the way you commanded a team full of older men who clearly didn’t approve of your position- whether it was due to your age or gender he didn’t know- but still treated you with respect; in short, you radiated a confidence and power he desired. For you, it was quite the opposite, Kylo Ren still wasn’t sure of himself and at times still acted like the awkward lanky Jedi boy who had never spoken to a girl outside of school purposes. He was a fresh and welcomed change from all the annoyingly rich and cocky men you met with on a daily basis.

Him and his team stayed on your home planet for nearly three months. Countless delegates from various planets flocked there for balls, meetings, conferences, and more. Your connections ran deep and you directly aided in the First Order’s successes during those three months. For the first few weeks, you and Kylo skirted around the obvious pull between the two of you. He wasn’t exactly sure how to ‘woo’ a girl, nor was he even sure if he was allowed to. His lack of action caused you to regularly doubt if he also felt the spark, or if it was completely one sided on your end. Weeks of longing gazes and accidental brushes of fingertips finally came to an end when the two of you were sitting on your private balcony, overlooking the well kept grounds, discussing the conference that had just ended. It was a roaring success for your planet as well as the First Order, both of you securing mining resources at an exceptional locked rate for a minimum of fifty basic years. You made the first move, he was irresistible under the moonlight, closing the space between you on your bench and pressing your lips directly on his. In his hesitation you thought you had completely misread the past month, but it was only a moment later that his hands found purchase in your hair, pulling you closer. The two of you were nearly inseparable for the rest of his trip.

It was difficult, when he finally had to return to his new master and some massive ship that would be lightyears away from you. Unspoken promises were made the night before he left, declarations of love and devotion made behind closed doors. He was still far from truly becoming Kylo Ren, had copious amounts of training to finish before he would see himself be fitting for someone like you. If he was nothing else, Kylo was desperate for loyalty and when you watched his ship leave you had no doubts he would come back.

And he did, nearly an entire standard year later. You almost didn’t recognize him when he stepped off his personal ship. All broad shoulders and shrouded in layers of black, with that intimidating mask covering his face. He was proving to be quite the warrior, the tales of him and the Knights he commanded reaching the farest edges of the galaxy. When the welcoming festivities had ended and he removed his mask in the privacy of your room, you found a mature face that had lost the softness you once knew. It was no matter to you, flinging yourself into his arms and vowing to never let go.

This time, when he left, you went with him of course. Kylo had been shocked when Snoke approved it, but Snoke, ever the manipulator, knew the growing attachment between the two of you would inevitably prove to be valuable in controlling Kylo Ren.

Moving into a giant spaceship wasn’t easy for you. The dark, cold and everlasting expanse of space was a sharp contrast to your warm ocean planet. You missed the sun on your face and your people, but when you vowed to never let him go, you meant it. As time went on, you grew accustomed to the ship and then eventually Starkiller- which was an entirely different battle, that piece of ice had you complaining for months-, and soon enough you couldn’t imagine a life not in space.

Most of your days were monotonous, not that you minded. From the first day you stepped foot onto base, Kylo began training you himself. He never wanted you to feel as hopeless and afraid as he did when he woke up to his uncle ready to kill him in his sleep. So he trained you, and he trained you hard. You could wield a lightsaber well enough, as he argued that should anything ever happen to him- a thought you hated entertaining-, his saber would be the best weapon you had available. You were smaller than him, so close combat was a challenge but you learned to use your size and agility as an advantage. What you specialized in, was the staff. It allowed you to give a larger opponent at a safe range until it was possible to take them down. Kylo had a special one created just for you, with double edged electrical ends that you could easily turn on or off. It was rare that he actually let you on a battlefield with him, but when he did you were unstoppable. Not that you minded, you quite enjoyed working behind the scenes, forming battle plans and leading diplomatic endeavors for the First Order.

Other than Snoke, no one out ranked you, not even Ren; a fact he had been extremely particular about after a visiting diplomat made the excuse of outright ignoring and belittling your presence in a meeting. You were equals in everything, even going as far as taking on the ‘Ren’ moniker.

Among First Order subordinates, you were fairly well liked, and not just because it was unspoken that anyone who thought badly of you would probably die at Ren’s hand. The people actually liked you. Ren was cold, you were warm. When he was sharp, you were soft. It worked well, his ability to command troops and fuel the fires of war was complimented perfectly by your ability to talk nearly anyone to your side.

You never wavered in your support for him, ever loyal by his side no matter what he did or who he killed or how many villages he burned to the ground. You stood next to him, never behind, when new planets presented themselves as potential allies. You watched from above when he burned villages, that dared aid the Resistance, to the ground. You cleaned and healed every single wound he received from Snoke’s brutal training. You held him together when the pull to the light made him feel weak and undeserving.

Anyone could see that you were the sun that Kylo Ren revolved around.

So, when he came back to Starkiller on that fateful day, covered in blood- your blood-, announcing that you were dead- and he was the one who killed you-, and that your name was never to be uttered on his base or by any First Order subordinate ever again, no one knew what to do.

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a/n - hi!!! im so excited for this story, ive never written star wars before and my lore knowledge isnt the best ill admit, so please excuse any minor bits of pieces i may get wrong! comments/likes/reblogs always appreciated. if you wanna be added to the taglist, just ask and ill make one! :D

no permission is given to copy or republish my writing on any other platform or account. if you see this story outside of my blog or my ao3 it is stolen work. i do not own nor claim to own star wars or any of the character involved in it.

#kylo ren #kylo #ren #kylo ren x reader #ren x reader #kylo ren x you #kylo ren/reader #kylo ren/you #kylo x you #kylo/you #reader insert #star wars fanfiction

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ad1thi · 4 years

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If your still doing fic recs, could u rec any soft stevetony ones?

absolutely!! this got pretty long so ive hidden most of it under a read-more so i don’t annoy people. a couple of authors feature more than once. ive tried to avoid that as much as possible, but if an author features more than once - take that as a sign that they have rly good stuff for soft stevetony

disclaimer: don’t forget to leave kudos and comments for every author!! (a disclaimer i regrettably forgot to add to previous fic rec lists but will be adding from now on)

soda pops: @starklysteve

If anybody asks, Steve would smile and say it was very romantic. Very Tony. Because if he went into any further detail, nobody would quite believe him.

Tony, on the other hand, would laugh and say that Steve’s in love with a man in a can. So, really, it wasn’t outside the natural progression of things.

me voy pa’l pueblo: @firebrands

two times steve walks away, and one time that tony walks with him.

/ or, my very fluffy take on my bingo card prompt "farewells." steve is on vacation when he meets tony.

fill for my stony bingo prompt: farewells; also for bookworminaslump on tumblr who asked for a tourist/knowledgeable local au!

Tumblr Ficlets: @omg-just-peachy (this is 115 chapters of stevetony being soft!!)

A collection of enough tooth-rotting fluff to last a year, all in one place.

tender offerings: @omg-just-peachy

Five times Steve carried Tony to bed.

the best thing (is that it’s happening to you and me): @captainstarkreportingforduty

Or, five times the team saw Steve Rogers and Tony Stark in love.

Sweet On You: @miniblackraven

It’s the 1940’s and Tony is working as a Donut Doll for the Red Cross. His job is to go around to various military bases and offer comfort food and conversation to homesick soldiers. He’s come to expect a lot of things in this job, but he doesn’t expect to fall in love with Captain America, the hottest most awkward soldier Tony has ever met.

Bespectacled Avengers Society (Membership of One): @baffledkingcomposinghallelujah

Tony gets glasses. Glasses get a Tony. Steve loses his mind and walks into walls.

a flower crown for your love: @anthonyed

"There, there," Pepper cooed. "Tony likes flowers?" she said with a shred of doubt in her tone. But when Steve peered up, she's smiling her bright toothy smile. He squinted and she sighed, dropping her hand from his shoulder. "He does." she insisted. "Even more so than me."

if this was a movie: @omg-just-peachy

“One of our seniors is being generous with his time this year—by force of his own actions, but generous none the less—and he’d be happy to help you, I’m sure. Tony Stark? I’ll set something up for later this week. I think between the two of you you’ll be able to pull your average up enough to make it through to playoffs,” Coulson said, with that ever-hopeful lilt in his voice.

Or, Steve needs a calculus tutor, Tony is available, but how is Steve ever supposed to focus when he's been in love with Tony for ... his entire school life?

you take me higher than the rest (everybody else is second best): @firebrands

tumblr fill for adi & anthonydarling, who asked for "'Prank' war, but the kind to see who can make the other blush the most in public" from this prompt list

amore mio: @brucewaynery

Tony has had it with Steve being dumb and reckless out in the field, he has a family to think about now, Steve promises him that he'll be with him, kingdom come.

(initially based on that one headcanon about Italian Tony yelling and gesticulating at Steve but Peter thinks he's doing some weird dance and tries to copy him, but it got very fluffy very quickly)

Lost My Mind in a Coffee Shop: @betheflame

“Boyo,” Bucky muttered to his best friend. “I swear to God that if you don’t ask that man for his number soon, I will create a Grindr profile for you and you will not like it.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “I am here to finish grading, not hit on men.”

“Can you not do both?” Natasha smirked. “Nearly tenured, historical genius, feels like something you should be able to multitask.”

&&&

In which Steve is a history professor and Tony's an engineering one and Bucky owns the joint where they have their meet cute.

AU-gust Chapter 7: @iam93percentstardust

stevetony, childhood friends AU

Right Up The Road: @gottalovev

The day at the senate committee in Washington DC wasn't supposed to end with Tony and Steve transformed into animals by a baby witch. That said, the 350 miles trek back to the compound to get help promises to be quite an adventure too!

(or the adventures of Cat!Tony and Wolf!Steve - and how to readjust when you're back to human!)

i’ll take care of you: @elcorhamletlive

“Hi.”

Steve blinks. The sound of loud thunder roars outside, but he doesn’t jolt, too focused on the image in front of him to be startled by the noise.

He has no idea what to say, and he isn’t sure if the shock is because of Tony’s absolutely sodden state – his hair glued to his forehead, his clothes dripping with water, forming a small puddle in front of Steve’s door – or because he wasn’t expecting to see Tony for at least three more days.

“Hi?” he says, a little tentative, before his brain catches up to reality. In his defense, he was getting ready to sleep when Tony knocked. He looks at what Tony is holding – a wet mess that seems to have been a flower bouquet at some point. “What are you doing here?”

The Tally System: @betheflame

Everyone on the team knew about the tally system.

Whenever Steve would save Tony - whether from a monster or from his own stupidity - he’d say, “tag”. Whenever Tony do the same, he’d say, “your turn”. Thor thought it was adorable, Clint thought it was ridiculous, Bruce refused to register an opinion.

Natasha thought it was something she could work with.

what’s mine is yours: @robertdowneyjjr

5 times Tony stole Steve’s clothes, and 1 time Steve returned the favor.

For a billionaire, Tony Stark really doesn't pay for a lot of what he wears.

I like Shiny Things But I’d Marry You With Paper Rings: @betheflame

Rhodey: I just confirmed with Sam that he’s going to make sure he cooks tonight and that his entire team is briefed. I’m heading over now to strategically arrange a fuck ton of ficus trees to block them from gen pop.

Pepper: They’re not getting engaged in a prison, Jimmy.

Rhodey: Tony Stark and Steve Rogers show up to Circe on a Saturday night in May and you watch every person in that restaurant turn into someone I’d rather arrest than eat with.

****

In which Tony and Steve get engaged, but they're kind of extra about it, because they are always themselves

the road to the stars: @shell-heads

Tony is seven years old when he sees the ballet for the first time and meets his future pas de deux partner.

His father is invited to sweet-talk politicians into a new weapons deal and explain his latest idea for their program, and his mom goes to catch up with old friends she hasn't seen in years, but Tony goes because his mom had smiled down at him and told him he would love it.

His mom's never wrong.

In which boy genius Tony Stark meets girl wonder Natasha Romanoff at the ballet, and they fit their broken little pieces together to make something beautiful on the dance floor.

Steve? He's just a dumb, awful, chaotic, extremely supportive older brother that really should just shut up and admit he likes Tony a lot more than he pretends, because Natasha only has five people in the world she likes; it only makes sense her two favorites would fall in love with one another.

They always were a little slow, though.

A Second Chance To Take it Slow: @omg-just-peachy

Tony loves his adopted son, Peter, but that doesn't stop him from wishing he had someone to do this whole parenting thing with. After a failed one night stand, Tony's parent-teacher conference with Mr. Rogers comes with quite the surprise.

Wake Up!: @randomstufffromotherblogs

Tony came home from a business trip and is woken up by his husband and their three-year old.

pull me closer to love: @captainstakreportingforduty (part of a series)

“A Mother’s Day card? For... Tony?” Steve clarifies, and can’t help the smile on his face as six familiar little heads nod in response.

“But... guys, Tony’s not—“ he pauses and takes a breath, any explanation dying in his throat against the excited gleam in everyone’s eyes. “Why do you guys want to do that, hmm?"

compromises: @robertpattisons (when i looked up OP on tumblr, this is the blog i was directed to - but i sincerely apologise if ive gotten it wrong)

Steve should have expected it, he really should have.

There were regulations that came with dating Tony Stark. Things that were clear and things that they needed to work through.

Things like how Steve always got strawberry ice cream, while Tony got rocky road. Or when Steve needed to get his homework done before he was down to make out - even though Tony always got his way.

Things like that were clear

all that you are is all that i’ll ever need: @natasharxmanov

Tony Stark and Steve Rogers announced their engagement on Good Morning America through Tony Stark’s previous secretary now CEO, Pepper Potts. And over this past weekend, I got the chance to sit down with them both, to visit their home and attend their gala, all to write this article about the most powerful couple in the world.

(Or, the fic in which Tony and Steve get married.)

(i won’t ever) trade my mistakes: @brucewaynery

Toddler Peter, painting a masterpiece with his dad.

aka: a dumb amount of family fluff to help you power through the week

#adi's rec list #stevetony #superhusbands #steve rogers/tony stark #steve rogers x tony stark #steve x tony #i did this instead of my exam #so i rly hope you enjoy it anon!!#there's a healthy amount of superfamily thrown in here #so apologies if that isn't your thing #anon ask #adi answers asks

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mxrcayong · 4 years

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avatar series: 01.19

masterlist.

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Exiting the crumbling arena, the group was greeted by the rising sun. The early hours of the morning were characterized by the usual red and orange sky, but unlike usual – an invisible and often ignored worries about the Equalist party have evaporated. Kilari swore she never realized how much her worries impacted her day; but as she saw Amon in handcuffs, her heart lifted.

“Good work on the back exit, Mr…” Lin turned to look at Jisung as she continues to constrain Amon in his cuffs.

Jisung was fumbling over his words at her recognition – this is the woman he always looked up to, who happens to be the daughter of his major idol. “Mr Park, Jisung Park, Ma’am General.” Lin chuckled to herself at her own impact on the flustered kid.

“The police in front just messaged me it’s surrounded by media,” Lin sighed, her eyes turning to look at one of the very few people she considers family unconscious and potentially… Lin can’t even think about it. “Tari would want to keep her identity hidden.” She looked up gently at Sukiara, “Can you tell me when she wakes up?” When Sukiara let out a hum of agreement, The general let out a solemn nod before dryly coughing. “Now, I got to take this asshole to the cameras, c’mon.” She was quick to hide her emotions, giving everyone a nod as she drags Amon’s weakened self away.

But Amon turned around. “This isn’t the end.” He sinisterly laughed, “The Equalist party is strong, we have people on the inside, we have-“ Lin gave him a particular hard shove, making him quiet down.

“We need to bring her to the infirmary.” Sukiara noted, motioning to Tari in Johnny’s arms. “If an Avatar passed out after Avatar State, it only lasts a few minutes.” She explained, “…but this so far is the longest time an Avatar is unconscious after exiting the state.” The guardian tried to hide her emotions through a stiffer demeanor, her hands behind her back and her shoulders wider than usual. She was giving herself more ground and, in a sense, give her more stability. It’s her usual public speaking stance to keep her nerves in check. It wasn’t working, unfortunately, as whenever she looked at Tari – she felt her knees bend into itself.

Yuta and Jisung were entranced by the arena. Their home away from home have crumbled into pieces, collapsed into itself. It was as if it was a biscuit, crumbled in the hands of Amon, and here are the crumbs. They would spend hours and hours here, training and practicing. Hell, this is where they met.

Sonan noticed them lagging behind as Kilari, Johnny (and thus Tari), and Sukiara climbed onto the flying bison. Their eyes were like a puppy kicked to a curb, pleading that this was not real. They looked harmed and broken, despite the events of last night. “Let’s get a move on,” Sonan mumbled, comfortingly placing her arms around their shoulders. “We should get Tari to an infirmary.” Jisung and Yuta had to tear their feet away from the ground they stood on, climbing onto the bison that patiently waited for their presence.

Johnny refused to let go of Tari. Even when they were on the flying bison, Tari’s head was on Johnny’s lap as he stroked her hair comfortingly – more to himself. From stroking her hair, Johnny could feel some movement – he could sense the fact she was breathing. It reminded him he wouldn’t lose her.

But throughout the ride, everyone’s eyes either fell asleep or stared at Tari – praying her eyes will open soon. “Avatar Aang passed out temporarily when he first entered the Avatar State, Tari should wake up in a few more minutes.” Sukiara reminded as if a way to comfort everyone, mumbling loud enough for everyone awake to hear

But minutes became hours, and Tari was eventually back at Bak Mei with no sign of regaining consciousness. “Uhm,” Sukiara stared at her feet, unsure how to comfort Tari’s friends or herself. She didn’t want to lose Tari either; as much as she tried to be distant, Tari was like her daughter. This is the longest time recorded for an Avatar to be unconscious after the Avatar State and Sukiara didn’t know what that could mean. “Everyone should get changed into new clothes and just get ready…uhm, the canteen people are preparing food.”

The rumbling of stomachs soon followed the mention of food. They didn’t even realise how hungry they were, the feeling being pushed aside by their concern. “We’re no good if we are weakened ourselves.” Yuta mumbled under his breath and everyone seemed to nod in agreement, except Johnny.

Johnny’s hands wrapped around Tari’s hand as she laid on the infirmary bed, hooked up to a number of IV fluids. The group was half way out the door by the time Sonan noticed Johnny stayed behind. Johnny couldn’t hear her over the beeping of the heart monitor; the only thing he listened to – as she told the rest of the friends to continue going.

“Johnny,” Sonan sighed, putting her hand on his back, “What would Tari say when you haven’t eaten?”

“Nothing.” Johnny scoffed. “She’d just continuously push food towards my plate until I see her….” He trailed off, as he looked at Tari’s face for the hopeful glimpse of the same eyes who would beg him to eat.

Sonan chuckled, looking down at her chosen family. She has never felt more uncertain than this; she felt like she was on the cliff edge, waiting to hear the news. “Don’t make me do that to you.”

The canteen wasn’t a better distraction. The hall practically echoed the silence back at them, the only sound amplified being the slurping of soup. No one wanted to speak with the fear that once they speak and Tari wasn’t there to make snide comments, that it’ll all start to feel real.

Luckily, an ‘urgent and mandatory’ newscast came on screen – the silence now replaced with the static of TV. The screen took up the whole wall; a familiar sight was shown in front of them; The NCT Arena in ruins. Mayor Roddin and Senator Zhong stood on top of the broken building, the unmasked Amon in cuffs behind them being held by Lin and two of her guards. Tenzin was beside them.

“We are standing here at the NCT Arena where it was learnt that the illegal underground bending fights were occurring, hosted by the previous internationally renowned pro-bending group Big Bang Crew.” The lady announced, a lady Johnny recognized from his company although vaguely. “It was also the location of the mandatory bending event that was planned last night by the Mayor, Senator, and Equalist party leader. We are here to hear the public speech made by the mayor and senator about the attacks that happened here the night prior.” The screen cut to a closer angle of the officials. From the background, it was obvious this was filmed around the same time they left the mainland.

“My name is Mayor Roddin and this is my colleague Senator Zhong.” Mayor Roddin spoke into a makeshift-podium’s microphone, Senator Zhong beside him staring down at his feet. “Over the last few years, we have been manipulated and tricked to believe a vengeful individual. We have believed every word he said and last night, we learnt that he was the true danger to society.” A video footage Amon, now in chains appeared on the screen, before cutting to the shot of him behind them. “He was fueled by revenge. His father committed a crime; he bended blood bending, the forbidden and inhumane bending that is the most powerful of them all. The Avatar Aang then took it away. Since, he was looking for revenge. To take away all bender’s powers.”

Senator Zhong took over the podium, “We apologize to all benders we have harmed, hurt, or belittled. We have to take a look at the history. Benders were family members who’d go out to hunt for food in the Spirit Wilds, they were the ones granted the power to give them safe journeys. Yes, not everyone can bend – but benders are not much different than non-benders.” They sounded sincere and genuine. “We offer our sincerest apologies. We know that may not be enough to help the harm we have caused, so we’d like to announce that Mayor Roddin and I are resigning from our seats in government. Mayor Roddin will be replaced by Chief of Police Lin Beifong who aided the Avatar last night in saving thousands of lives and my senate seat will be replaced with a non-bender.”

“We hope to see future change and acceptance for the benders.” Mayor Roddin took over again. “We wouldn’t be here today without them. We also like to extend our deepest and warmest gratitude to the current Avatar, who helped get Amon in prison.” The two government officials exchanged glances before looking at the journalists lined up in front of them at the press conference. “Any questions?”

It wasn’t long before journalists were left with many variations of the same question; “Who is the Avatar?” The questions were ignored and discarded, the now officially resigned officials just smiled and told them that information will remain classified.

“I can’t believe its all over.” Kilari let out a breath, sudden tears coming from her eyes. Johnny’s arm immediately jumped to wrap around her shoulders, feeling much more connected to the fire bender since they spoke at the bench. “We can finally breathe.” Kilari’s eyes went wide with happiness as she directed her comment to the other benders at the table.

Yuta was at a particular loss for words.

“This feels unreal.” Jisung comments.

Tari’s eyes fluttered open, noticing where she was. She was hooked up to a ton of medical equipment.

Beside her sat Sukiara, who practically leaped to her feet with excitement at the slightest movement from Tari. “What happened?”

“You did it.” Sukiara celebrated, “You did it, Avatar Tari.”

sorry this kinda sucks!!! ive been super busy the last two weeks with my internships and some family stuff. im not the most proud of this chapter but i gotten to a point where i wasnt wanting to write because of this chapter, so i wanted to get this chapter out of the way. something about htis chapter just messed with my mood. so! one more chapter until book one is over, but there’s a book 2 coming up!

request anything for future parts / penny for your thoughts here

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text-to-speech-impediment · 5 years

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THE VAULT IN OUR STARS

An Opinion Piece on How Bethesda Survives (And How You Can Change Them!)

A/N: I wrote this op-ed for funsies. As you may know, I am known to warm myself at a corporate dumpster fire from time to time, but this one is especially close to my heart. I may replace with an actual edited version but for now, just enjoy it in its raw & unpolished glory. If you’re a Bethesda fan, you’re used to it anyway.

In the words of Todd Howard, “I read on the internet…that sometimes it doesn’t just work.”

Indeed, after just over two weeks since its 14 November release date, Bethesda Softworks’ release of survival multiplayer sandbox “Fallout 76” has more than merely failed to impress most of its players. The game has garnered an infamously low average score of only 54% on popular game journalism site, Metacritic. It fares no better on Youtube, with dozens of popular influencers obliterating the high expectations of even the most devoted fans of the Fallout franchise; but this will not be another essay to dishonor the multiple technical, immersion and storytelling woes that plague beleaguered “Fallout 76”. That’s for another essay.

This criticism is one that many previous public complaints have touched on, flirted with, but seldom fully explored while caught up in the disappointment they had in “Fallout 76.” Specifically, this essay is leveled broadly at Bethesda Softworks LLC, the video game publishing division responsible for “Fallout 76”, as well as ZeniMax Media Inc., the parent organization of Bethesda and many other well-known game developers such as Arkane Studios, id Software and more. The upper management of these companies is removed from all but the finances of their industry; they are abusing both their content creators and consumers to calculated effect, remaining foggy at best on the aim of the products their teams are producing and out of touch with the end user’s interest.

What more can we say against corporations of this staggering size? Corporations and mergers, time and again, continue to exploit art production and consumption then shrug off the backlash by driving screws into their overworked employees and letting them take the fall with the public. Unless we look at past events, this trend of blame shifting isn’t obvious. It’s hard at the moment to see that Bethesda Softworks’ colossal failure to recreate their previous endearing successes with fans in “Fallout 76” didn’t happen overnight.

It is for this reason that I sit on my soapbox today, somehow about to make an analogy of the gaming marketing industry by using Hazel and Gus from good ol’ John Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars.” Never did I imagine I’d see those concepts together, but here I am smashing them together like this is fanfiction(dot)net. Don’t get too excited, though, because none of the wholesome aspects of Hazel and Gus make it into this analogy; no, this essay is all about the essence of what happens when you take a beautiful thing and strip it to the bare bones. Being a gamer in today’s culture of parasitic marketing is roughly akin to being desperately in love with a dying cancer patient. With their pants down and tumors exposed, Bethesda is giving us a rare glimpse into exactly what has made them cancerous: a lack of Vision (not to be confused with Activision.)

You see, Bethesda doesn’t have a vision. If you asked Todd Howard today what Bethesda’s vision was, his response would essentially amount to “get bigger, bigger than we’ve ever seen before,” and you would never be quite sure if he meant to say it would be the games, the bugs, or the pocketbooks that would be getting “bigger.” Bethesda has no vision because they are blinded by what I like to refer to as the survivalist mindset, cancer that has spread through their higher management and public faces so quietly for so long that Bethesda has only just noticed it rearing its ugly head. They have ventured through the past 20 years producing games that fans would merely refrain from harshly criticizing. If only they had seen their culture of undiluted survivalism in time to integrate it into “Fallout 76.”

To see the birth of this cancer that is killing Bethesda, we will travel back in time to 31 October 1998, when “The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard,” along with its related title “An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire,” were both resounding “commercial failures,” according to Stephan Janicki of Computer Gaming World. These two disappointments brought Bethesda to the edge of bankruptcy before ZeniMax Media swooped in and claimed them as a subsidiary in 1999. In the following years, Bethesda Softworks knew they had to succeed, or they were done in the eyes of both their corporate overlords and their fans. This is when the panicky, survivalist mindset set in. Feverishly they worked until, in 2002, they released “The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind,” and Todd Howard was relieved to find that “It just work[ed].” Upon the laurels of Morrowind, Bethesda skipped happily into the sunset, bringing us many more beloved titles like “Fallout 3,” “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion,” “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim,” “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Legendary Edition,” and “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Special Edition.”

But they never grew out of that survivalist panic. Like cancer, it festered in the background, that burning fear of “commercial failure,” which is a euphemism for rejection by their fans. Bethesda’s near-death experience had scared them. Their aversion to conflict and attempts to please every consumer instead of maintaining a focused design and lore quickly made them the endearing dweeb of game developers, merely slapped on the wrist for repeat performance flaws that would break the fans of other developers. “Cute” bugs in coding dating back several releases, consistently shipping products with technical difficulties unbecoming of a $60 price tag, multiple rerelease announcements and story-writing so poor that it’s common for players to joke about blatantly ignoring the main plot of the game, often for hundreds of hours, in favor of the things Bethesda did capture: exploration, immersion, and lore.

That brings us to the jokes. After Skyrim-related content pervaded their 2017 E3 press conference, it began to dawn on Bethesda’s corporate half that all those Bethesda memes were laughing at them, not with them. Shaken by flashbacks of Tiber Septim’s conquest of Hammerfell in “The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard,” Todd Howard and Bethesda’s upper management knew they couldn’t sit by idly and allow for history to repeat itself. They couldn’t accept hearing rejection from fans, even if it meant directly ignoring their feedback. Tunnel vision set in in the wake of more Skyrim jokes and criticism over their Creation Club microtransactions. The cancer was consuming them and the only way to heal their fracturing friendly persona and silence their critics was to get bigger, bigger than we’ve ever seen before; but at E3 2018, two decades after their initial “commercial failures,” their realization came many years too late and they didn’t snap out of their survivalist mindset in time.

Their bigger-than-we’ve-ever-seen-before came in the form of “Fallout 76”, not an ambitious venture objectively but very ambitious for Bethesda Game Studios Austin Branch, formerly known as BattleCry Studios LLC, who had never coded a project using Creation Engine, which Bethesda has been using exclusively since 2011.

But wait! say the studious fans of Bethesda. If Creation Engine has only existed since 2011, why does “Fallout 76” have bugs dating back as far as Morrowind? Creation is based off a much older engine called Gamebryo (known as NetImmerse until 2003). A much older engine that has successfully supported huge multiplayer games, most notably the critically acclaimed “Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.”

If the core of Bethesda’s Creation Engine is a game engine that can create an enjoyable multiplayer experience, then why can’t “Fallout 76” do the same? Well, spread this funny honey on a biscuit, baby, because the answer is more cancer!

The fact that Bethesda has recurring bugs dating back over multiple releases suggests that, rather than taking time to address technology advancements, Bethesda’s survivalist mindset has grown upon Creation Engine like a tumor, strapping framework on top in half-baked layers, as quickly as possible, reducing the flexibility and independence of asset files into a fragile, unstable, monstrous whole.

I genuinely do not believe that Bethesda Game Studio Austin’s game developers were incompetent or lazy. Since the “Fallout 76” announcement at E3 2018, many have suspected disorganization in Bethesda’s management as they encountered a truly new set of obstacles for the first time. No one knew what “Fallout 76” would become, not the end users and certainly not the management of Bethesda Studios that for years had ignored the desperate need for ease-of-use coding with conservative couplings (files dependent on other files). They threw BGS Austin, a relatively new team that was inexperienced with designing Creation Engine worlds, into a hyped AAA release with an enormous fanbase; and what it became was an unacceptable byproduct of that insidious culture of corporate survivalism. Bethesda officials became so concerned with what the public thought of them that they never thought to check. They fixated on getting bigger than we’ve ever seen before until their creation became confused and codependent. They obfuscated what brought fans to Bethesda in Morrowind and kept them coming back through every hiccup and every rerelease: the fun to be had in exploration, immersion, and lore, but most importantly, the Vision.

Oh, what a situation Bethesda finds itself in now! Even though they’ve finally seen a backlash from setting profit margins before considering their team’s capacity, many feel this call-to-god moment has come too late. Losing the reverent trust of large portions of their fanbase, they must either find a way to fix their cancerous, bloated Creation Engine or risk losing their Bethesda aesthetic by developing a costly new engine to proceed. Bethesda knows this, and they desperately hope that no one else does because they also realized that by promising not only a decade-anticipated new “Elder Scrolls” release but a new game franchise as well, they’ve already allocated most of their resources. They can’t go back on their promises now without a complete “commercial failure” from fans already stretched thin by “Fallout 76;” now more than ever they need all hands on deck. There is little time and money left to dedicate to the enormous undertaking of designing a new game engine from scratch, much less the even more arduous task of unscrambling Creation Engine, now so distorted that their employees don’t know how to fix it anymore or they would, just to stop seeing memes about Skyrim and floating Scorched Zombies. It’s hopeless. It’s arguable that they deserve help after insulting fans with the lack of focus and attention for “Fallout 76,” multiple buggy rereleases of a buggy title from 2011, and the general sense of not understanding what made a compelling story. They do not deserve sympathy for the vague unease of having to create your own purpose, a job which Bethesda has shifted to its fans to avoid facing its fears from 20 years of trying to please everyone for their own pride and not in the spirit of their consumers.

Bethesda may not deserve our help, but many still believe that The Elder Scrolls does, that Fallout does. If you’re one of those people, there is something you can do, and it’s to ignore the cries to boycott all Bethesda products “forever.”

Bethesda owns the intellectual property to The Elder Scrolls and Fallout; and while Bethesda is an abusive, frustrated company with—seemingly—a vision of self-destruction, they do still care what you think because of their all-consuming fear of the Redguard. But ZeniMax Media owns them, even the neurotic Todd Howard, and ZeniMax Media has only ever cared about your money. You cannot refuse to agree to buy the game you want Bethesda to make and still expect it to arrive, but you can refuse to pre-order their games and indulge in microtransactions for as long as it takes. The game industry’s security and stock values are heavily dependent on fan loyalty, digital merchandise sales and pre-orders. This money gives them their security blanket in case they create “Fallout 76.” Wrapped in their blankies, the management of Bethesda and ZeniMax Media will keep their narrow vision and continue to use their development teams as bad press sponges unless they experience some genuine fear of “commercial failure.” If consumers reject their vision, they will change their vision for money; because Truth is, the game was rigged from the start.

#my writing #bethesda #zenimax #fallout 76 #fallout #fo76 #fo76 beta #fallout 4 #skyrim #the elder scrolls #writeblr #writing #article #humor art #long post #vidya games

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weedconsortium2 · 5 years

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A Note From Robert Hoban

On December 20, 2018, President Donald Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill into law. This cleared the pathway for the outright legality of industrial hemp; meaning that it should no longer be considered a controlled substance. Many European-based governments had previously (and have since) taken this very same step. Latin American countries are moving very quickly in the same direction. This represents a global shift in cannabis policy, but the work has only begun.

How does one navigate these choppy waters in a global industrial hemp economy? Specifically, what are the regulatory protocols surrounding the production of hemp-based products for human or animal consumption? With the U.S. FDA actively considering this very question and looking to provide “regulatory pathways” for products containing cannabis and cannabis-derived compounds), and the European Union examining the use of cannabinoid-rich hemp-derived ingredients and additives as a potential ‘novel food’ across the E.U. (decision to be finally announced on or about March 19, 2019), where can one find good guidance? How can one build a global business plan? What does a distribution channel actually look like? More practically, what does a label need to include in one or more jurisdictions for the very same product?

These are issues that HLG Global addresses every day. While the path is navigable with expertise, the answers are not always clear. But one thing is for sure, the global cannabis industry is here to stay. And the great potential of hemp extracts and derived products containing cannabinoids has only begun to impact the marketplace. And the most pressing issue is standardization and consumer protection.

The standards governing consumer protection related to health and safety measures, labeling and disclosure already exist. And these existing standards need to be applied to the hemp plant, as it is simply an agricultural commodity that has been used for thousands of years. But what happens when insatiable consumer demand for hemp-derivatives bumps up against long-held misbeliefs about the cannabis plant? We are seeing the answer to this question evolve in real time…around the globe. It is extremely challenging. Hold on tight. And stay tuned.

/Bob Hoban

This is the second HLG Global Newsletter, which will regularly feature news, information, trends and articles from our vast global industry network. We hope that you will rely on us for your global cannabis connectivity. And please feel free to send along information, news, articles, or the like to be featured in the HLG Global Newsletter.

This newsletter will cover:

I. Introducing Cannabis Law Report

II. Introductions to the HLG Global legal team.

III. Reflections on the global cannabis marketplace, by Bob Hoban

IV. “All Bets on Green” published by LexisNexis

V. Bankers Are Circling Europe’s Growing Cannabis Market

VI. Upcoming international cannabis events

VII. International headlines

I. Featured HLG Global Consortium Partner: Cannabis Law Report

HLG Global provides elite guidance on the many questions that arise for international businesses, governments and ancillary service providers. HLG Global’s partners are a worldwide collection of professionals with expertise in the global hemp marketplace and the regulated marijuana industry, whether that be science-based, medical-focused, or otherwise. Our international consortium partners each bring their own expertise to the table; they are leaders in their respective fields.

Cannabis Law Report is the only dedicated law & accounting news and information source for the latest intelligence, commentary and views from the regulated cannabis & hemp markets around the world reporting from the Americas, Europe & Australasia.

We started publishing back in 2015 and have reported daily on the market since then and now have over 5,500 articles giving you the most comprehensive historical development of the market from a regulations, compliance and legal perspective. Best of all we’re free !

We also publish a weekly alert on Mondays (we know you’re busy and don’t need endless emails clogging up your inbox daily) that highlights articles published by our legal and tax specialists working in the sector as well as the most important news and cases from the Cannabis Law Digest.

As of December 2018, we now have a European correspondent, Mark Taylor, a specialist journalist who works in highly regulated industries. We believe he is the only writer worth reading if you really want to get a sense of what’s happing in Europe.

Our contributors include, amongst others, Jordan Zoot, California’s leading cannabis and tax specialist, OR & WA firm Lane Powell, Canada’s Langlois and of course Hoban Law. If you’d like to contribute please do get in touch with us.

Sean Hocking, founder and editor of CLR, has 30 odd years experience of working in legal and professional publishing with stints at the likes of Lexis Nexis & Legalease(UK) and also publishes information daily at www.practicesource.com for the legal publishing and law librarian market globally.

Cannabis Law Report is only interested in getting relevant information to you in a timely fashion. We don’t run conferences & publish here today gone tomorrow information reports. Just the news and insights that’s needed to understand this complicated and fascinating sector from a legal and accounting perspective.

We’ll soon have some exciting news putting CLR in front of 80% of the US’s lawyers as we start working with a major legal publisher and existing media partners already include Green Market Report, Cannabis Financial Network and also Newsbank who make sure our content is seen by every USA govt dept and tertiary institution.

If you’d like to get in touch, work with us, subscribe to our free weekly news alert just email Sean via this link.

Learn more about CLR sponsorship, co-publishing, and directory opportunities here.

II. Introducing HLG Global’s International Attorney Jeff Frazier

Since graduating from the University of Texas School of Law, Jeff has worked as a lawyer and consultant representing clients in matters involving environmental and human rights law, business and commercial litigation, contract and criminal law, and trans-border litigation. He also advises individuals and companies doing business in Latin America, primarily Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Argentina.

Jeff counsels individuals, organizations and governments in the rapidly evolving cannabis industry. He also has been involved in emblematic drug policy litigation including actions to end the Plan Colombia fumigations, to dissolve the Texas Regional Narcotics Task Force System; and to enjoin illegal Michigan state police crime lab reporting practices. Jeff is of counsel to Komorn Law in Michigan, special counsel to Hoban Law Group, and is licensed to practice in Texas.

III. Reflections on the Global Cannabis Marketplace

In February, 2019, I traveled to Latin America with several clients to work on a variety of business transactions, and to consult with two governments concerning cannabis regulation. I stopped over in Panama City, Panama to attend two events — the inaugural InterCannAlliance Latin America Symposium and Cannatech Panama. Why Panama? Because the cannabis industry in Latin America is projected to reach $12 billion within the next 10 years. And because Panama has long been a major throughway for international trade and banking.

Panama did not disappoint. The organizers of the ICA and Cannatech are truly world class. And the events were very well attended. It was a chance to network with interested government officials, global investors, consulting groups, professionals and operators. Theracann International, a Panamanian Company with global operations, was a great host, with facility tours and product demonstrations. In a nutshell, these events showed the tremendous potential of the Latin American cannabis marketplace. And it was driven by true professionals across the board. From investment and licensing to global distribution, the quality of opportunity was second-to-none. And it further reinforced my view that those of us that have been operating in regulated cannabis environments around the world truly ‘come from the future.’ The challenges, problems, and solutions to the most pressing ‘theoretical’ debates have largely been addresses in multiple places around the world. And it is very exciting to be a part of the global solution to these challenges, and to bring together the top minds from the cannabis industry worldwide, in an effort to be a guide, and to hold the lantern down a dark pathway..if you will.

Travels to Europe following Panama led me down a similar path. With European governments wrestling with government regulatory issues, and operators/investors looking for guidance, it is always a great feeling to present effectuated, real-world solutions to the problems that are anticipated. Again, there is a perception that we come from the future. And with this comes not only great opportunity, but great responsibility; a responsibility to understand that there is no one-size-fits-all regulatory solution, and that cultural sensitivities are of paramount importance, and to understand that the North American framework has its flaws. But most importantly, a responsibility to ‘get it right.’ Because the industry will only go so far as those with the lanterns will lead it. This is a heavy burden for those ‘from the future.’

-Bob Hoban

IV. All Bets on Green: An Analysis of UK Firms Focusing on Cannabis

This article by Samantha Gilbert, LexisNexis, was originally published on LexisPSL. This article looks at the reasoning behind the decisions of law firms to invest departments and funds into the cannabis industry, the growing interest of US firms to open UK branches for cannabis, and the risks. Hoban Law Group President and CEO, Bob Hoban, contributed his expertise to the article.

Read the entire article here in .pdf form.

IV. Bankers Are Circling Europe’s Growing Cannabis Market

Read the original article here in Bloomberg.

It is amazing to see how investment banks have viewed the cannabis industry over the past several years. And how these banks have been exhaustively looking for an entry point into the cannabis industry. However, the pathways have not always been clear. So, it began with banks looking for clear and stable regulatory environments within which to invest; this is why so much investment has been directed by and through Canada. And we had begun to see the same trends across the European Union; because of clarity and stability. Now, with the passage of the U.S. Farm Bill, combined with clear marketplace opportunities across the E.U., these banks are all-in. It is extremely intriguing to watch the banks move slowly and deliberately, while the fervor surrounding the global cannabis industry economic opportunities continues to be set ablaze.

V. Don’t Miss: GreenTech 2019 in Amsterdam

GreenTech will open its doors for the fourth time at RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre, and this year from 11 – 13 June. The theme of the Summit will be: ‘Autonomous technology – a formula to accelerate business, professional horticulture beyond the green thumb’.

This year’s edition will focus on artificial intelligence and autonomous technology for greenhouses. Special attention will be given to organic, indoor farming and to growing media (substrates, peat, etc.). This year will also feature an area for medicinal cannabis farming. Next to that it will be possible to visit world’s leading vegetables and seed breeders in their own demonstration areas in close distance to Amsterdam. Also pot and bedding plant

breeders will show their newest varieties during the FlowerTrials, which will run parallel to GreenTech 2019.

The summit will be on 12 June, the second day of the trade

show. The trade show is a must visit for all horticulture and other indoor growing professionals worldwide and presents the latest innovations in the rapidly evolving industry. 95% of all the available exhibition space has been booked. This shows the immense interest of connecting with professionals and sharing knowledge about the

horticulture technology.

Mariska Dreschler, Director Horticulture of RAI Amsterdam, said: “There is a big demand for successful horticultural entrepreneurs, but this line of business is unfortunately still very scarce. Horticulture is dependent on location, infrastructure, specialist skills, ‘green fingers’, (the green thumb) and the availability of labor. Developments in autonomous technology create opportunities to reduce dependencies in horticulture and increase flexibility in the

industry. Therefor we have chosen for this theme: ‘Autonomous technology – a formula to accelerate business, professional horticulture beyond the green thumb’.“

Free registration for GreenTech until 3 June

Visitors can register free of charge until 3 June on www.greentech.nl.After 3 June the online registration fee will be €40 including VAT per person, and €70 including VAT at the entrance

desk.

VI. Upcoming International Cannabis Events

March 31st – April 2nd: Berlin, Germany – ICBC

Click here to register

April 25-26: San Cristobal, Mexico – CannaMexico World Summit

Click here to register

May 2: Bogotá, Colombia – Cannabiz Latino HUB

Click here to register

May 3-4: Bogotá, Colombia – Cannaciencia

Click here to register

May 6: Copenhagen, Denmark – MJBiz Daily’s European Cannabis Symposium

Click here to register

May 15-16: Zurich, Switzerland – ICBC

Click here to register

May 24-25: Victoria Falls, Africa – InterCannAlliance

Click here to register

May 25 – June 7: Cologne, Germany – Hemp Industries Association EIHA Conference

Click here to register

June 6: Santiago, Chile – Cannabis Business Latin America

Click here to register

June 11: Amsterdam, Holland – Cannabis Capital Convention

Click here to register

June 11-13: Amsterdam, Holland – GreenTech Agricultural Tech Conference

Click here to register

September 15-16: Vancouver, Canada – ICBC

Click here to register

September 26-28: Montego Bay, Jamaica – CanEx Jamaica

Click here to register

November 20-21: Valletta, Malta – Medical Cannabis World Forum

Click her to register

December 10-11: Frankfurt, Germany – Cannabis Business Europe

Click here to register

VII. International Headlines

Aurora Cannabis to Enter Portugal with Acquisition of Gaia Pharm

Insurance-covered cannabis in Germany tops 70 million euros in 2018

Licensing for cultivation of cannabis and associated activities in Guernsey

Australian medical marijuana revenues could hit AU$36 million in 2019

Is Romania considering legalizing medical cannabis?

Israel’s prime minister contemplates adult-use marijuana legalization

UK first as specialist medical cannabis clinic opens in Manchester

The post HLG Global Publish Latest Newsletter. Learn More About HLG Global & CLR’s Publishing Partnership appeared first on CBD Oil Vape Liquid Spray - Cbd Pain Relief Capsules - Weed Consortium.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2CEQcpq via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Blogger

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growlegalweed-blog · 5 years

Text

Legal Weed Resources

Check out... https://legalweed.gq/420/hlg-global-publish-latest-newsletter-learn-more-about-hlg-global-clrs-publishing-partnership/

HLG Global Publish Latest Newsletter. Learn More About HLG Global & CLR’s Publishing Partnership

A Note From Robert Hoban

/Bob Hoban

This newsletter will cover:

I. Introducing Cannabis Law Report

II. Introductions to the HLG Global legal team.

III. Reflections on the global cannabis marketplace, by Bob Hoban

IV. “All Bets on Green” published by LexisNexis

V. Bankers Are Circling Europe’s Growing Cannabis Market

VI. Upcoming international cannabis events

VII. International headlines

I. Featured HLG Global Consortium Partner: Cannabis Law Report

If you’d like to get in touch, work with us, subscribe to our free weekly news alert just email Sean via this link.

Learn more about CLR sponsorship, co-publishing, and directory opportunities here.

II. Introducing HLG Global’s International Attorney Jeff Frazier

III. Reflections on the Global Cannabis Marketplace

-Bob Hoban

IV. All Bets on Green: An Analysis of UK Firms Focusing on Cannabis

Read the entire article here in .pdf form.

IV. Bankers Are Circling Europe’s Growing Cannabis Market

Read the original article here in Bloomberg.

V. Don’t Miss: GreenTech 2019 in Amsterdam

breeders will show their newest varieties during the FlowerTrials, which will run parallel to GreenTech 2019.

The summit will be on 12 June, the second day of the trade

horticulture technology.

industry. Therefor we have chosen for this theme: ‘Autonomous technology – a formula to accelerate business, professional horticulture beyond the green thumb’.“

Free registration for GreenTech until 3 June

Visitors can register free of charge until 3 June on www.greentech.nl.After 3 June the online registration fee will be €40 including VAT per person, and €70 including VAT at the entrance

desk.

VI. Upcoming International Cannabis Events

March 31st – April 2nd: Berlin, Germany – ICBC

Click here to register

April 25-26: San Cristobal, Mexico – CannaMexico World Summit

Click here to register

May 2: Bogotá, Colombia – Cannabiz Latino HUB

Click here to register

May 3-4: Bogotá, Colombia – Cannaciencia

Click here to register

May 6: Copenhagen, Denmark – MJBiz Daily’s European Cannabis Symposium

Click here to register

May 15-16: Zurich, Switzerland – ICBC

Click here to register

May 24-25: Victoria Falls, Africa – InterCannAlliance

Click here to register

May 25 – June 7: Cologne, Germany – Hemp Industries Association EIHA Conference

Click here to register

June 6: Santiago, Chile – Cannabis Business Latin America

Click here to register

June 11: Amsterdam, Holland – Cannabis Capital Convention

Click here to register

June 11-13: Amsterdam, Holland – GreenTech Agricultural Tech Conference

Click here to register

September 15-16: Vancouver, Canada – ICBC

Click here to register

September 26-28: Montego Bay, Jamaica – CanEx Jamaica

Click here to register

November 20-21: Valletta, Malta – Medical Cannabis World Forum

Click her to register

December 10-11: Frankfurt, Germany – Cannabis Business Europe

Click here to register

VII. International Headlines

Aurora Cannabis to Enter Portugal with Acquisition of Gaia Pharm

Insurance-covered cannabis in Germany tops 70 million euros in 2018

Licensing for cultivation of cannabis and associated activities in Guernsey

Australian medical marijuana revenues could hit AU$36 million in 2019

Is Romania considering legalizing medical cannabis?

Israel’s prime minister contemplates adult-use marijuana legalization

UK first as specialist medical cannabis clinic opens in Manchester

#&amp #about #CLR’s #Global #Latest #Learn #More #Newsletter #Partnership #Publish #Publishing

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businessguide12-blog · 5 years

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International Franchise Association Foundation Announces Grand Prize Winners of 2019 NextGen in Franchising Global Competition

New Post has been published on https://businessqia.com/awesome/international-franchise-association-foundation-announces-grand-prize-winners-of-2019-nextgen-in-franchising-global-competition/

International Franchise Association Foundation Announces Grand Prize Winners of 2019 NextGen in Franchising Global Competition

Of hundreds of applicants from around the world, top four millennial entrepreneurs receive investment to grow their businesses

Washington, DC( RestaurantNews.com) The International Franchise Association’s( IFA) Foundation announced today the grand prize winners of its 2019 NextGen in Franchising Global Competition — established by founding sponsor David McKinnon, CFE — which was held at IFA’s 59 th Annual Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. The four millennial entrepreneurs, who hailed from the United States, Philippines, Australia, and Kenya, were selected from a group of 12 wins of the Global Competition, a worldwide program that engages millennial entrepreneurs seeking to grow their businesses through the franchise business model, and the only start-up business accelerator in the world focused on franchising.

Former Fortune 50 CEO and 2016 Presidential Candidate Carly Fiorina resulted a panel of magistrates for the final round of the Global Competition — which was sponsored by the Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation and Subway International — on Wednesday, Feb. 27, when each participant pitched their business concept to Fiorina and a panel of industry experts, as part of a convention with virtually 4,000 attendees, for the chance to win an investment of $5,000- $10,000 to assistance grow their business. In addition to Carly, judges included Suzanne DeLuca Greco, board member of the Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation, and Shelly Sun, CFE, CEO and Founder of Brightstar Franchising LLC.

“I have counseled numerous entrepreneurs and business leaders throughout my career and can honestly say the 2019 NextGen in Franchising Global Competition wins are an unbelievably talented group with bright futures ahead of them, ” said Carly. “It was an honor to share my experiences and advice on how to persevere as a leader as they move their businesses forward, continue to expand, and inspire the lives of many throughout their journey .”

This year, Jeremy Hassell, founder of City Cave, took home first place, which included a $10,000 cash prize. Princess Diana Rosario, founder of What’s Your FLAN ?, and Brooke Gagliano, founder of Frutta Bowls each received $5,000. The magistrates also awarded a $5,000 award to Venuste Kubwimana, founder of A Water Kiosk at School, a social enterprise franchise.

“We are highly excited to be announced as the 2019 NextGen winners amongst some of the worlds greatest talent. It’s unbelievable to think our franchise from little old Brisbane in Australia has taken the big prize, ” said Hassell. “Our biggest win here is the friends, mentors and networks we have been exposed to and can not wait to implement all we’ve learned into our franchise model. We look forward to returning to the conference next year and couldn’t be more thankful to the IFA Foundation for this incredible opportunity.”

Since the program’s inception in 2015, over 2,500 millennial entrepreneurs from more than 75 countries have applied. Many NextGen winners ought to have featured in top business publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Inc ., and Fast Company, among others.

“What I love about the NextGen in Franchising Global Competition is that, per year, our winners genuinely represent the future of our industry. They have embraced franchising and are passionate about empowering others to go into business for themselves, but not by themselves, ” said David McKinnon, CFE, founding sponsor of the NextGen in Franchising program. “These are some of the brightest young entrepreneurs I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and I am aroused to see how they leverage the knowledge gained and connects made over the last few days to grow their businesses.”

The 2019 NextGen in Franchising Winners vying in the final round were :P TAGEND

Brooke Gagliano, Frutta Bowls( United States)- Brooke graduated from Drew University in 2014 majoring in business with a minor in biology and art. After college, Brooke used her passion for athletic education to start her own business develop sports squads and clients, which is where “shes been” first introduced to acai. While on a trip out west, Brooke had her first acai bowl and the relevant recommendations for Frutta Bowls was bear. With the backing of her friends and family, she opened her first store in May 2016 in Howell, New Jersey, at age 23 with cofounder Chris Ives. The Frutta Bowls dreaming started as a local idea with two locations. It has since grown into a nationwide idea, continuing to positively affect many lives along the way. Frutta Bowls defines itself apart by not only its commitment to providing healthy and delicious food, but also by its involvement in the communities surrounding each locating. Princess Diana Rosario, What’s Your Flan?( Philippines)- Princess is the founder of What’s Your Flan ?, a company founded in 2016 that is the product of her passion for cooking. What’s Your Flan? serves original mouthwatering desserts that are all freshly built, natural, and have no food coloring or preservatives. From humble beginnings and 14 failed industries, she was shaped to be a better business owner, influencing the launch of her Philippines-based business designed to help fellow entrepreneurs have the opportunity to become their own boss. After two hardworking years of business, What’s Your Flan? has expanded from a single location to 70 franchisees nationwide, one international franchise in Dubai UAE, and hundreds of registered resellers. Jeremy Hassell, City Cave( Australia)- Recognise the need for a health and wellness center that focused on longevity and total well-being of individuals, Jeremy Hassell launched City Cave in Australia with cofounder Tim Butters. Since the opening of its first location in 2016, City Cave has grown to offer a mix of holistic and clinical services tailored to each guest’s needs and provides the ideal space for relaxing and meditation. From float therapy to infrared saunas and yoga, City Cave aims to deliver the perfect facility that adds years of quality life to those in the community. Today, City Cave has 4 places across Australia, with plans to continue its expansion. Venuste Kubimana, A Water Kiosk At School( Kenya)- Named amongst Africa’s Top 50 Innovators in 2018 and AIDF Global Innovator of the Year, Venuste Kubwimana is a youth activist and social entrepreneur based in Kenya. He is the Founder and Secretary General of the International Transformation Foundation, a parent organization of the franchising initiative A Water Kiosk at School launched by Venuste in 2014. He was inspired by personal experiences growing up in communities where students stroll long distances to gather water for their families before and after going to school. As a result, many children in the area have a high propensity to drop out of school in order to meet their needs. A Water Kiosk at School is a school-based and student-managed business selling clean tap water to community residents at an affordable price. It is both an educational and profitable business teaching students business and entrepreneurial skills and making much-needed income for schools.

The additional 2019 NextGen in Franchising wins include: Abedalrahman AL-Zghoul, Bread for Education( Jordan ); Gamal Albinsaid, Garbage Clinical Insurance( Indonesia ); Jason Dolan, Core9 Fitness( Australia ); Reka Oszlanczi, Creppy Franchise System( Hungary ); Rihab Hasanain, Blooming B’s( Saudi Arabia ); Ruth Agbaji, Code Wiz( United States ); Samuel Munguti, Farmers Pride( Kenya ); and Timea Vas, Don’t Panic English( Hungary ).

NextGen wins received a spot at the NextGen in Franchising Summit, an educational and networking program for new generations entrepreneurs at the IFA Annual Convention, a year membership with the IFA; an opportunity to participate in the final round of the NextGen in Franchising Global Competition for a chance to win a monetary investment to help grow their businesses; and opportunities to network with leading franchisors, franchisees and suppliers and with other young entrepreneurs.

The NextGen in Franchising program is built possible due to the generosity of its donors and sponsors, which include David McKinnon, the founding sponsor; the Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation/ Subway; the Stewart& Jane Bainum Fund; Lawrence ” Doc ” Cohen, Doc& Associate; J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation; Tariq Farid, Edible Arrangings; Charlie Chase, FirstService Brands; Aziz Hashim, NRD Holdings; Joe Bourdow, Valpak; Tony Valle, ELM Perform; Dave Mortensen, Anytime Fitness; and Melanie Bergeron, Two Men& A Truck Intl.

For more information about the NextGen in Franchising Global Competition, please contact Gionne Jones at gjones @franchise. org or +1( 202) 662 -0 772.

About the IFA Foundation

Celebrating 36 years of education, the investigations and excellence, the International Franchise Association( IFA) Foundation is a 501( c )( 3) tax-exempt organisation and supported through the generous contributions of IFA members and others. The Foundation’s mission is to advance franchising and the free enterprise system by increasing the knowledge and professional standards of all members of the franchising community; training the new generations of franchise practitioners; increasing recognition of franchising’s key role in the free enterprise system; and providing comprehensive information and research about important developments and trends in franchising.

About the International Franchise Association

Celebrating 58 years of excellence, education and advocacy, the International Franchise Association is the world’s oldest and larger organization representing franchising worldwide. IFA runs through its government relations and public policy, media relations and educational programs to protect, enhance and promote franchising and the more than 733,000 franchise establishments that support nearly 7.6 million direct chores, $674.3 billion of economic output for the U.S. economy and 2.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product( GDP ). IFA members include franchise companies in over 300 different business format categories, individual franchisees and companies that support the industry in marketing, statute, technology and business development.

Contact: Chelsea Bear Fish Consulting [email protected] 954 -8 93 -9 150

Gionne Jones IFA Foundation gjones @franchise. org 202-662-0772

Read more: restaurantnews.com

#franchise #press release

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anachef · 5 years

Text

International Franchise Association Foundation Announces Grand Prize Winners of 2019 NextGen in Franchising Global Competition

Of hundreds of applicants from around the world, top four millennial entrepreneurs receive investment to grow their businesses

Washington, DC (RestaurantNews.com) The International Franchise Association’s (IFA) Foundation announced today the grand prize winners of its 2019 NextGen in Franchising Global Competition — established by founding sponsor David McKinnon, CFE — which was held at IFA’s 59th Annual Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. The four millennial entrepreneurs, who hailed from the United States, Philippines, Australia, and Kenya, were selected from a group of 12 winners of the Global Competition, a worldwide program that engages millennial entrepreneurs seeking to grow their businesses through the franchise business model, and the only start-up business accelerator in the world focused on franchising.

Former Fortune 50 CEO and 2016 Presidential Candidate Carly Fiorina led a panel of judges for the final round of the Global Competition — which was sponsored by the Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation and Subway International — on Wednesday, Feb. 27, when each participant pitched their business concept to Fiorina and a panel of industry experts, as part of a convention with nearly 4,000 attendees, for the chance to win an investment of $5,000 – $10,000 to help grow their business. In addition to Carly, judges included Suzanne DeLuca Greco, board member of the Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation, and Shelly Sun, CFE, CEO and Founder of Brightstar Franchising LLC.

“I have counseled numerous entrepreneurs and business leaders throughout my career and can honestly say the 2019 NextGen in Franchising Global Competition winners are an incredibly talented group with bright futures ahead of them,” said Carly. “It was an honor to share my experiences and advice on how to persevere as a leader as they move their businesses forward, continue to expand, and inspire the lives of many throughout their journey.”

This year, Jeremy Hassell, founder of City Cave, took home first place, which included a $10,000 cash prize. Princess Diana Rosario, founder of What’s Your FLAN?, and Brooke Gagliano, founder of Frutta Bowls each received $5,000. The judges also awarded a $5,000 prize to Venuste Kubwimana, founder of A Water Kiosk at School, a social enterprise franchise.

“We are extremely excited to be announced as the 2019 NextGen winners amongst some of the worlds greatest talent. It’s unbelievable to think our franchise from little old Brisbane in Australia has taken the big prize,” said Hassell. “Our biggest win here is the friends, mentors and networks we have been exposed to and can not wait to implement all we’ve learned into our franchise model. We look forward to returning to the conference next year and couldn’t be more thankful to the IFA Foundation for this incredible opportunity.”

Since the program’s inception in 2015, over 2,500 millennial entrepreneurs from more than 75 countries have applied. Many NextGen winners have been featured in top business publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Inc., and Fast Company, among others.

“What I love about the NextGen in Franchising Global Competition is that, each year, our winners truly represent the future of our industry. They have embraced franchising and are passionate about empowering others to go into business for themselves, but not by themselves,” said David McKinnon, CFE, founding sponsor of the NextGen in Franchising program. “These are some of the brightest young entrepreneurs I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and I am excited to see how they leverage the knowledge gained and connections made over the last few days to grow their businesses.”

The 2019 NextGen in Franchising Winners competing in the final round were:

Brooke Gagliano, Frutta Bowls (United States) – Brooke graduated from Drew University in 2014 majoring in business with a minor in biology and art. After college, Brooke used her passion for athletic education to start her own business training sports teams and clients, which is where she was first introduced to acai. While on a trip out west, Brooke had her first acai bowl and the idea for Frutta Bowls was born. With the support of her friends and family, she opened her first store in May 2016 in Howell, New Jersey, at age 23 with cofounder Chris Ives. The Frutta Bowls dream started as a local idea with two locations. It has since grown into a nationwide concept, continuing to positively affect many lives along the way. Frutta Bowls sets itself apart by not only its commitment to providing healthy and delicious food, but also by its involvement in the communities surrounding each location.

Princess Diana Rosario, What’s Your Flan? (Philippines) – Princess is the founder of What’s Your Flan?, a company founded in 2016 that is the product of her passion for cooking. What’s Your Flan? serves original mouthwatering desserts that are all freshly made, natural, and have no food coloring or preservatives. From humble beginnings and 14 failed businesses, she was shaped to be a better business owner, influencing the launch of her Philippines-based business designed to help fellow entrepreneurs have the opportunity to become their own boss. After two hardworking years of business, What’s Your Flan? has expanded from a single location to 70 franchisees nationwide, one international franchise in Dubai UAE, and hundreds of registered resellers.

Jeremy Hassell, City Cave (Australia) – Recognizing the need for a health and wellness center that focused on longevity and total well-being of individuals, Jeremy Hassell launched City Cave in Australia with cofounder Tim Butters. Since the opening of its first location in 2016, City Cave has grown to offer a combination of holistic and clinical services tailored to each guest’s needs and provides the ideal space for relaxing and meditation. From float therapy to infrared saunas and yoga, City Cave aims to deliver the perfect facility that adds years of quality life to those in the community. Today, City Cave has 4 locations across Australia, with plans to continue its expansion.

Venuste Kubimana, A Water Kiosk At School (Kenya) – Named amongst Africa’s Top 50 Innovators in 2018 and AIDF Global Innovator of the Year, Venuste Kubwimana is a youth activist and social entrepreneur based in Kenya. He is the Founder and Secretary General of the International Transformation Foundation, a parent organization of the franchising initiative A Water Kiosk at School launched by Venuste in 2014. He was inspired by personal experiences growing up in communities where students walk long distances to gather water for their families before and after going to school. As a result, many children in the area have a high tendency to drop out of school in order to meet their needs. A Water Kiosk at School is a school-based and student-managed business selling clean tap water to community residents at an affordable price. It is both an educational and profitable business teaching students business and entrepreneurial skills and generating much-needed income for schools.

The additional 2019 NextGen in Franchising winners include: Abedalrahman AL-Zghoul, Bread for Education (Jordan); Gamal Albinsaid, Garbage Clinical Insurance (Indonesia); Jason Dolan, Core9 Fitness (Australia); Reka Oszlanczi, Creppy Franchise System (Hungary); Rihab Hasanain, Blooming B’s (Saudi Arabia); Ruth Agbaji, Code Wiz (United States); Samuel Munguti, Farmers Pride (Kenya); and Timea Vas, Don’t Panic English (Hungary).

NextGen winners received a spot at the NextGen in Franchising Summit, an educational and networking program for next generation entrepreneurs at the IFA Annual Convention, a year membership with the IFA; an opportunity to participate in the final round of the NextGen in Franchising Global Competition for a chance to win a monetary investment to help grow their businesses; and opportunities to network with leading franchisors, franchisees and suppliers and with other young entrepreneurs.

The NextGen in Franchising program is made possible due to the generosity of its donors and sponsors, which include David McKinnon, the founding sponsor; the Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation/Subway; the Stewart & Jane Bainum Fund; Lawrence “Doc” Cohen, Doc & Associates; J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation; Tariq Farid, Edible Arrangements; Charlie Chase, FirstService Brands; Aziz Hashim, NRD Holdings; Joe Bourdow, Valpak; Tony Valle, ELM Perform; Dave Mortensen, Anytime Fitness; and Melanie Bergeron, Two Men & A Truck Intl.

For more information about the NextGen in Franchising Global Competition, please contact Gionne Jones at [email protected] or +1 (202) 662-0772.

About the IFA Foundation

Celebrating 36 years of education, research and excellence, the International Franchise Association (IFA) Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization and supported through the generous contributions of IFA members and others. The Foundation’s mission is to advance franchising and the free enterprise system by increasing the knowledge and professional standards of all members of the franchising community; educating the next generation of franchise practitioners; increasing recognition of franchising’s key role in the free enterprise system; and providing comprehensive information and research about important developments and trends in franchising.

About the International Franchise Association

Celebrating 58 years of excellence, education and advocacy, the International Franchise Association is the world’s oldest and largest organization representing franchising worldwide. IFA works through its government relations and public policy, media relations and educational programs to protect, enhance and promote franchising and the more than 733,000 franchise establishments that support nearly 7.6 million direct jobs, $674.3 billion of economic output for the U.S. economy and 2.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). IFA members include franchise companies in over 300 different business format categories, individual franchisees and companies that support the industry in marketing, law, technology and business development.

Contact: Chelsea Bear Fish Consulting [email protected] 954-893-9150

Gionne Jones IFA Foundation [email protected] 202-662-0772

source http://www.restaurantnews.com/international-franchise-association-foundation-announces-grand-prize-winners-of-2019-nextgen-in-franchising-global-competition-030719/

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colin777-world · 6 years

Text

The Prophesied End-Times Army of Women OCTOBER 16, 2017 BY MONICA DENNINGTON The Monday Heart-Check! (Watch today’s 8-minute message!) . The Prophesied End-Times Army of Women (Transcript)

There are many prophecies in the Bible that tell us about the end times, and that period of time right before Jesus Christ returns. Some of those prophecies, we’re very familiar with. the But the exciting thing about living in the last generation is the fact that, just as in Jesus’ generation, there are going to be some prophecies in the Bible about the end-times that we haven’t ever recognized before.

Just as in Jesus’ time, when he was fulfilling many of the prophecies that the Pharisees and the Jewish people were familiar with about the Messiah, he was also bringing into view and fulfilling prophecies about the Messiah that nobody noticed before.

Like the prophecy about the suffering servant, and the fact that by his stripes we would be healed, and by his wounds our transgressions would be forgiven.

So in addition to the prophecies that we are all excited to see fulfilled — like the appearance of the two witnesses in Revelation — there are also going to be prophecies in the Scriptures that we never noticed before. But as they come into view and jump off of the pages into real life, we’ll begin to recognize them as speaking about events and people in the end-times.

One of these passages is found in Psalms 68, verse 11, and it says:

“The Lord announced the word, and great was the company of those who proclaim it: ‘Kings and armies flee in haste; in the camps, men divide the plunder.’”

[Caption: Psalm 68:11-12 (NIV)]

At first glance, reading out of this particular translation, this may not seem to be clearly an end-times prophecy.

But as we look at this verse in some other translations, and take a closer look at the Hebrew, we’re going to find that there’s a lot more there that meets the eye.

First of all, the NET Bible says:

“The Lord announced the word, many many women spread the good news.”

[Caption: Psalm 68:11-12 (NET)]

The Amplified version (AMP) says:

“The Lord gives the word [of power]; the women who bear and publish [the news] are a great host.”

[Caption: Psalm 68:11-12 (AMP)]

And the NASB says:

“The Lord gives the command; the women who proclaim the good tidings are a great host…”.

[Caption: Psalm 68:11-12 (NASB)]

Why is there such a difference in these translations? The NET translation notes explain this. They say:

“The Hebrew is ‘the one spreading the good news [are] a large army’. The participle translated ‘the ones spreading the good news’ is a feminine plural form…”

So a person who knows Hebrew, that’s reading Hebrew, is going to immediately see that this passage is talking about a large group of women.

It is only through the translation process that this has been clouded, and its only now being revealed to us and brought to our attention in these end-times.

And understanding that this group of people is a group of women, now we are going to look at two Hebrew words in that verse that tell us more about this group of women, and what exactly they will be doing.

First, the word that is translated “many many women” or “a great host of women” is the word “tsaba”. This word means:

1. that which goes forth, army, war, warfare, host

(a) army, host

i. host (of organized army)

ii. host (of angels)

iii. of sun, moon, and stars

iv. of whole creation

(b) war, warfare, service, go out to war

~ mass pf persons…especially organized for war (an army); by implication, a campaign…(+) army, (+) battle, company, host, service, soldiers, waiting upon, war(-fare).

So understand that there is no doubt about the nature of this group of women.

We’re not talking about a group of women who get together in a stadium to have a women’s conference.

We’re talking about, literally, an army— a campaign of women who go out before the Lord, proclaiming the Word of power that the Lord has spoken.

And indeed the New Living Translations says:

“The Lord gives the word, and a great army brings the good news.”

How do we know this is an end times event that we’re talking about?

First of all, because we see that though Psalms 68 does talk about events of the past, it is also looking toward a future—when the King and His procession come into view, and he goes up onto his holy hill. As it says,

“Your procession has come into view, oh God, the procession of my God and King into the sanctuary. In front are the singers, after them the musicians; with them are the maidens playing tambourines. Praise God in the great congregation; praise the LORD in the assembly of Israel.”

[Caption: Psalm 68:24-26 (NIV)]

So this is pointing to the time when Jesus will return, and as God, he will take his place also as King in Jerusalem.

In fact, this entire passage is a portrait of the return of Christ, and how he will march forward in power, defeat his enemies, crush their heads, and march in victory in that procession up to his holy hill.

This is a future event that has not yet happened.

Second of all, we also know that throughout human history, the history of the Bible, and the history of the Church, though we have seen a few bright shining stars of strong women leaders and prophets that God has raised up in order to proclaim his Word of power, we have never in human history yet seen a formidable army of women that go forth in a campaign to publish and preach his Word.

And indeed that is exactly what our second Hebrew word is going to tell us about this verse, because the word that is translated “to proclaim” or “to pronounce” the word of the Lord is the word “basar”. It means:

1. to bear news, bear tidings, publish, preach, show forth

(a) to announce (salvation) as good news, preach

i. to announce (glad news):

~messenger, preach, publish, shew forth, (bear, bring, carry, preach, good, tell good) tidings.

So ladies and gentlemen, whether or not it fits into your doctrine, this is the Word of the Lord.

It is written. It cannot be changed.

This is a prophecy about an army of women who are going to be marching forth in power, specifically to publish and to preach the good news of Jesus Christ.

That’s right — an end-times army of women preachers, and we are coming.

So if you have been called to be part of this end-times army — to give the testimony of Christ before men, to go and proclaim that Word to the world — then the Lord is here to give you this word today:

Your place in history has been prophesied, and he is now calling you to step up to the bat.

And yes, all the armies of hell are going to come against you. That river of lies is going to be coming out of the dragon’s mouth to try to overwhelm the woman. [Caption: Revelation 12:15-16 (NET)]

Satan is going to tell you that God wants you to shut up—that you cannot speak to men. That you cannot proclaim the testimony of Jesus Christ before men because you are a woman.

But this passage tells you that there will be an army of women.

And it also tells you what the fate of all of those who try to come against that army will be.

In verse 17 it says,

“The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands; the Lord has come from Sinai into his sanctuary…Surely God will crush the heads of his enemies, the hairy crowns of those who go on in their sins. The Lord says, ‘I will bring them from Bashan; I will bring them from the depths of the sea, that you may plunge your feet in the blood of your foes, while the tongues of your dogs have their share.’”

[Caption: Psalm 68:17, 21-23 (NIV)]

So ladies, if God has called you to proclaim his Word, you cannot march in fear.

You must march in power; you must march according to the orders that have been given to you in this Scripture.

And if you are a person who thinks it is your job to come against these women, you will be counted as one of these enemies, and your fate will be the same.

This is a prophesied event that is happening in your hearing and in your view— right now before Jesus comes back.

If the Lord is calling you to become a part of this army, the only correct answer is, “Yes Sir!”.

And if you are not a woman called to be a part of this army, the only right action is to support them with all of your funding, with all of your words, and with everything that is in you.

Because the Word of power that they are proclaiming is not their own.

It is the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is returning soon.

Let those who fear the word of the Lord praise God’s Word in the sanctuary.

And let those who have an ear, hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.

________________________________________

“As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.”

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apsbicepstraining · 7 years

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Real Homemakers Of New Jersey Recap: Returning HGTV A Run For Their Money

Another weekend get, another occurrence of. Maybe thats why I dislike on this show so much It represents my ass having to wake up and go to work. Or maybe its because no ones hollered prostitution whore or been indicted of any misdemeanours this season. They really did give the bar a bit high-pitched. But whatever. This is what weve went. At least it got more exciting last week. Preserve it up, Jerseyans. And yes, thats what theyre called. I Googled it.

We kick shit off at Dolores house and continues to be revamping. I feel like this is going to be a season-long happening. D goes pissed because Frank decided to merely resurface the cabinets instead of gutting the whole kitchen. Why tf does your ex husband get a say in this? This is your fucking house. Your relationship, I guess.

D and Siggy head to Jacquelines house and Im gambling my resources of the fund theyre gonna talk about the semi-fight that went down between her and Tre last chapter. Disturbance of the fucking centuryIm right. What else is new?

Jacqueline rehashes the whole oppose in a singer thats almost as exasperating as Teresas, which is mind-blowing in and of itself. Bravo starts doing that act where they proceed from backward and forward between the families and between this and the shrieking expression and my glass of Whispering Angel, I find a migraine coming on. Thanks, Andy Cohen. Melissa is telling her caveman spouse that Jacqueline was out of path for trying to pit him against his own sister, and I agree. So theyre gonna get lunch to discuss.

Over at Teresas, shes still doing yoga. We fucking get wise already. Youre fit and Zen post-lockup. Side memorandum: Are those cheetah print sheets on their ruler couch? Jesus fucking Christ. I say this every episode but the Jersey-ness is reaching me nauseated. Back to the chapter Its a big day at the Giudice house. Tre gets to take her ankle bracelet off. Mazel tov! I couldnt relate to these beings less if I tried.

Its time for Jacqueline and Melissas lunch. Obstruct the drama coming. They dive right into it. I entail damn. Jacqueline is like screaming in this restaurant rn.

Jacqueline: I dont got to go to you to talk to your partner. Ima go straight to the source. Ive done so much for your family!

Have you? I dont really recollect, tbh. But thats not resounding any bells. Melissas exactly kinda like what-the fuck-ever. And thats all. Seemed real abrupt if you ask me, but this ros might be getting to my head.

I can tell were going to Siggys house because theres some Jewish marry music playing after a commercial shatter and Sigs is the only non-Italian Jew on this display. Subtle, Bravo. Sigs house is immaculate. Not even a hint of leopard. Can we just movie all of the incidents here instead of the rest of these gaudy-ass rooms? Her mothers been demonstrated and start talking about their heritage and Siggys bratty children. Ugh I forgot about them. The hires intimate Jewish traditions to deliver their own families back together. Its worth a shot I suppose.

At Jacquelines, Ashlee and her boyfriend are over for dinner. They talk about living together and the convo returns to marriage and pregnancy so naturally BF looks like hes about to fucking shaft. Jacqueline attracts him aside like its an episode of The Bachelor. He wants to take Jacqueline to help him pick out an engagement resound, which is sweet. Im glad Ashlee went her shit together. It was touch and go there for a bit while. You did it!

Melissa and Joe Gorga head to Tres for dinner. Teresa says she wants an edamamelike, one singular edamame? Returns out, she intends an enema. LOL. Words are hard. Theyre there for about two fucking seconds before we start talking back the Teresa and Jacqueline argument. Goddamn, yall are some petty bitches. Move on. It wasnt even a big deal. There are much bigger things to worry about. Such as going to prison and shit.

Meanwhile, Dolores is still renovating her home. Since when did this become HGTV? Frank shows up, and I feel like D hangs out with her ex a lot more than whats ordinary. I get it. They have minors. But like, does he have a fucking dwelling? Hes literally always there. But fine. Dolores wants to knock cold a wall, which, after hours of watching this afternoon, I fully support. It certainly opens up the room. Frank tones a bitch fit for a sec because thats gonna get expensive, but then caves. That a path, D.

Siggy took her parents advice and emcees Kiddish at her house in is making an effort to constitute her kids less asshole-y. Ive got high hopes, but low-toned expectations.

Zen Tre ends shes also Dr. Tre and hosts a care conference where everyone in the fam writes down their love. This ought to be good. I cant imagine Joe is too good with texts, but I dont wanna stereotype. It backfires when Milania puts her parents on blast.

Milania : I dont like it when my dad announces me fat, specially since hes fat af too. Mom doesnt get me. She never listens to me because shes ever on her phone.

Damn. Parents of the fucking time over here. Youd conclude after being away from your girls for a year, youd wanna coldnes with them. But like, I bet you missed Twitter very, so I get it. Gia pretty much says the same shit, except “shes been” tells her mama she overreacts, to which, Teresa shockingly overreacts.

Were back at Siggys and, despite Kiddish, her girls are still little shits. Cast them down to Georgia, Sigs. An hour with my grandparents and theyll be fucking angels.

Its Milanias bday so in true Jersey fashion, they get a pink Hummer limo. They go to this residence announced iFly where gust gusts acquire you pilot or something. Idk. I dont enjoy any kind of physical pleasure besides wine tastings, so it consider this to be my worst fucking nightmare, but the girls look like theyre having fun. Teresas phone is nowhere in sight, for the record.

Jacqueline and BF travel echoing store and have a really emotional discussion. Couldnt yall have done this in the car on the way over instead of in the actual accumulate? No? Okay. We get a montage to seeing how cruel Ashlee was as a teen. Ahhh, the very best ole days.

Were back at iFly, and Milania is talking about her 11 th bday and Joe starts to rip up because he wont be there. This actually realizes me so sad. I mean, hes supposed to be in prison for like four years. Thats a long fucking time when you have young children. Damn it. Im hollering again. Is it precisely me or is this franchise way sadder than the other Housewives?

But why stop there? Makes check in on Dolores croaking puppy while were at it. Bethenny must be free to get in with the Jersey ladies so I can chuckle a little. We gotta lighten this shit up. Lastly the sadness discontinues because Sigs and Jacqueline come over to do some demo. Its probs a good way for them to get out some of that Jersey anger. D gets a entitle from Maz, whos still pissed because she is still not going to work at their piece of shit gym. I dont think she gets how positions extend, but what do I know?

Melissa and Tre are having some tea and is about to change Sigs, D, and Melissa have been scheduling a girls weekend. Fuck. Yes. Girls weekends= wine-coloured and arguings. Teresas on the fence but not really because shes contractually obliged to go to this shit so she agrees. Whats the over/ under on how many times well ensure Teresa doing downward bird-dog and other fitness shit this trip-up?

The next day, Teresa goes her book in the mail. She speaks the dedication she wrote to her daughters while lying on her leopard membranes. We get it, Tre. You love your daughters. Just not as much as your phone.

Her and Joe then start talking about the disagreement with Jacqueline again, and would you look at that? My bottle of wine-coloured is drain right as the escapade objective. Until next week

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celebrityresearch-blog · 7 years

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Ellen Page - September 26, 2017

Past Conan Appearances:

October 7, 2015 -

Naming Plants (link)

People started sending Page pictures of their pets and plants via Twitter, asking her to name them.

She describes her cacti-naming powers as visceral and the words of God.

Coming Out and LGBT+ Activism (link)

Page announced she was gay at a human rights conference.

A year later, she was presented with the Vanguard Award by the HRC for her activism for LGBT+ rights and equality, for which she also had to give a speech.

The nature of her nerves for these two speeches were very different.

She is grateful to the HRC because they’ve provided her with opportunities in her current life (i.e. having a girlfriend whom she loves and can fantasize about a future with).

Freeheld, the film she was promoting at the time, is about a lesbian woman who is denied the right to give her girlfriend pension benefits after she is diagnosed with stage IV cancer.

Page couldn’t imagine being in the closet and playing this role.

Characters in the film are based on real people.

Conan Stand-Up Routine (link)

When she was 23, Page made a submission tape of her stand up for Conan’s show and posted it on YouTube.

Her first joke was about an anarchist who won’t eat honey because she disagrees with the politics of the hive.

The second joke was about how one side of the Canadian coin is the queen’s face, while the other is a beaver.

May 23, 2014 -

Dreams (link)

Wrote on Twitter about analyzing her dreams.

Has a lot of anxiety-filled dreams about having a strongly excessive amount of pubic hair.

(Conan mentions his mother-in-law is skilled at interpreting dreams.)

Page had a dream that her and Justin Bieber, a fellow Canadian, were spending time in his Canadian abode, when his mom returned to the house with take out food from Ikea, much to the excitement of Page and Bieber.

A lookalike website matched Bieber to one of Page’s old photos.

Fight scenes + Superpowers (link)

Her character in X-Men is Kitty Pride, a character which does not participate in fight scenes.

One of her friends, who holds a double blackbelt in karate, showed her how to knock someone out while barely touching them (if at all). The friend demonstrated this trick on the waiter.

June 4, 2013 -

Juggling + Environmentalism (link)

Learned how to juggle because she spent too much time on film sets and had no friends and demonstrated her juggling talents on-air.

Promoting The East, a film about a group of activists who are passionate about going after evil corporations, but there is an outsider trying to infiltrate their group.

Activists in the film practice Freeganism, which involves completely removing oneself from capitalism (i.e. taking food from a dumpster, preparing and eating it).

In preparation for this role and in line with her own environmental interests, Page spent two weeks at Lost Valley, practicing Permaculture, which involves living in a cyclical manner that mirrors nature.

Canadian Identity (link)

Page is a native Nova Scotian, so it makes her comfortable that hockey is becoming more popular in L.A.

Found a McLobster sandwich in Nova Scotia, which are apparently sold during certain points in the summer.

Page used to play hockey.

Other talk show appearances (sorted in reverse chronological order):

The Late Late Show with James Corden (March 1, 2016) (link)

Page used to write fake love letters to pretend people, and she always signed the letters as “Jordan.”

After coming out, she realizes this Jordan character may have been foreshadowing her lesbian identity.

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (May 28, 2013) (link)

Promoting The East.

Page was wearing a Keith Richards shirt, but she confesses she’s never met Keith Richards and she’s not a diehard Rolling Stones fan.

She took Latin in school for one year, but all she knows how to say is one set of verb conjugations.

Wants to get another dog after the passing of hers, but she explains it’s difficult because she moves around so much.

When she was 3, her aunt put Page in charge of taking care of her rabbit. but while her aunt was away, Page was bitten by the rabbit on her toe, and the rabbit died before the aunt returned.

Page enjoys activities like roller skating and running.

Page does not believe she could be a politician.

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (April 6, 2011) (link)

She thinks she should try more drugs for their romantic nature.

Page describes herself as a vegan except for that non-vegan food she catches and prepares with her own hands.

Her mom has a maple leaf tattoo on her back, which confirms Ferguson’s theory that Canadians are aroused by their own flag.

When she was camping, Page heard a moose and its baby outside her tent.

She reads a lot of environmental nonfiction books, and one of the best books she had recently read was Patti Smith’s memoir.

Went to Portugal when she was 16 and had a half-shaved head. There she saw a skeleton dance to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and a monkey riding on the back of a llama.

Confesses to stealing a car after she saw Gone in Sixty Seconds.

Page never goes shopping, and her apartment is so ornate that when she came to Craig’s stole, she stole the mug and that was the only one she had in her house.

Plot of the film, Super: A man with a drug-addicted wife has to figure out a way to save her, which requires him to seek Page out as a superhero.

The Late Show with David Letterman (March 31, 2011) (link)

Promoting Super

Letterman was the first talk show she ever did.

In her first interview with Letterman, she mentioned she lived in an ex-brothel in Halifax, but this was a mistake because everyone (even a drunk homeless man) knew where she lived.

The largest explosion before the Atomic bomb occurred in Halifax, and some of the remnants from this destruction are still visible in the city.

Spends every day in the summer swimming in new lakes.

After she made Juno, she travelled across Eastern Europe with her friend, and the two of them decided to try a new kind of absinthe in every place.

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (July 16, 2010) (link)

Mentions that Nova Scotia is a Latin phrase meaning “new Scotland,” and she remarks that she loves sweaters which contributes to her love for the gorgeous Nova Scotia.

She has worked on farms in the past, but boats mildly scare her.

Has two rescue dogs (who have since died) but she leaves her dogs in Nova Scotia, jokingly because she doesn’t want them exposed to L.A. drugs.

Her Beagle nick-named Joobie Doobie has a punctured nipple that hangs low.

Confesses to cussing more than people may expect.

Her father was born in the south shore of Nova Scotia.

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (July 15, 2010) (link)

Shares two Nova Scotia fun facts. The first of which is that it has more bars per capita than any other place in North America. The second was that it has the second largest harbor in the world, besides Sydney Australia.

Page doesn’t drink a lot.

Leonardo DiCaprio has never visited her at her home in Halifax.

When she was at Lost Valley, she made “lasagna-style” stacked piles of compost, which included urine. She broke down the stench with sawdust and carbon post.

She additionally used to sleep walk frequently, and she once woke up in a hotel hallway in her underwear at the age of 11.

During a sleep talking episode, she once said something inappropriate and cruel to her boyfriend.

Believed her house to be haunted because items would just vanish, which is especially noticeable considering the minimalist style of her home.

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mindthump · 7 years

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9 innovative, entertaining, and downright strange gaming trends from E3 2017 http://ift.tt/2sGavPp

Creative work isn’t made in a vacuum. While video game studios across the world don’t necessarily know what their contemporaries are working on at any given time, every developer makes sure to keep aprised of the current state of the industry. And E3 remains the place the most important show where studios converge en masse to showcase their upcoming games. With the show floor closed, countless game-makers will look back at the event, looking at patterns and trends to see what’s coming next. Let’s take a look at nine trends that unfolded over the course of E3 2017.

Lots of developers are trying new things

When a game developers makes a hit, chances are it’s going to keep making that game series, or at least the same kind of game, until players can’t it anymore. Game franchises rarely change their core identity mid-development or in between entries. At E3 2017, however, a lot of studios showed that plans to change things up.

At Ubisoft, two established franchise showed off major course corrections.

BioWare, best known for creating the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series’, revealed Anthem, a brand new action RPG in the vein of Destiny. While new franchises are born each year, BioWare has spent the last decade Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Star Wars: The Old Republic — three stable, successful RPG franchises that have made the studio one of the biggest names in the genre. Anthem seems like a huge change of pace from the narrative driven RPGs that BioWare is known for. And given the implied scope of the game, it could very well put all three of Bioware’s franchises will be on the back burner for the foreseeable future.

Crytek, the studio behind the Crysis series, showed off Hunt: Showdown, a game that we learned in May had been resurrected from the ashes of Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age. Since we last saw it three years ago, the game has been completely retooled. Previously, it was a fairly rote zombie horde fest (basically a Left 4 Dead knock off). Now, Hunt: Showdown is a complex and eerie PvP title that pits two teams against one another. Maps are riddled with zombies, and each team must evade or kill them while searching for each other, as well as demonic targets. Showdown is much more tactical than its previous identity, as once you die, your character is gone from the game forever.

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Lastly, at Ubisoft, two established franchise showed off major course corrections. Assassin’s Creed Origins shakes up the decade-old series’ combat, exploration, and inventory management. Ubisoft’s open-world racing game, The Crew 2, will abandon the crime story from the original, essentially rebooting the franchise. And instead of just street races, The Crew 2 emphasizes all forms of motorized travel, including boats and planes.

Developers are finally shipping their long-awaited games

Video games, no matter the size, take time to make, more than the average player probably realizes. Still, it’s no fun when it seems as if a game you’ve been looking forward to has dropped into development limbo, with no word as to whether it will ever come out. Thankfully, a positive trend from this year’s E3 was that a trio of highly anticipated games that experienced long development cycles will arrive before the calendar year changes.

Cuphead, the sidescrolling indie title with an incredible 1930s cartoon-style animation, launches September 29. Developed by Studio MDHR, Cuphead was originally announced at E3 2014, and we’ve had our eyes on it ever since.

Crackdown 3 was also announced at E3 2014. The third game in Microsoft’s over-the-top GTA style franchise has suffered delays ever since, which may have been caused likely by its ambitious “everything you see is destructible” game mode. Delays are a thing of the past now for the game, though, as Crackdown 3 lands on Xbox One and PC November 7.

Fortnite, a co-op survival game that tasks players with building sustainable structures to ward off monsters, hits Early Access July 25. While not technically an official release date, Fortnite has been announced and re-announced multiple times since Epic Games unveiled the project at the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards.

Some small-scale hits are getting a shot at building a franchise

Indie games are typically one offs, whereas AAA studios like to build brands through franchises. At E3 2017, however, we learned of followups to two recent, heralded indie games.

Moon Studios announced Ori and the Will of the Wisps, a sequel to its dazzling 2015 game Ori and the Blind Forest. And while technically a prequel, Life is Strange: Before the Storm will chronicle the events leading up to Dontnod’s Life is Strange. The three episode arc was developed by Deck Nine, not Dontnod, but it’s nice to see that an intellectual property as different as Life is Strange has legs. Oh, and Dontnod is currently working on a proper Life is Strange sequel as well.

This new game franchise seems awfully familiar…

Like we mentioned before, video games aren’t made in a vacuum. New IPs often hark back to existing franchises in terms of mechanics, style, and even setting. At E3 2017, we saw an assortment of new franchises with noticeable ties to games we’ve played and loved, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

When Ubisoft revealed Skull and Bones, we had flashbacks to the surprisingly fun naval combat in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

Anthem feels like BioWare and EA’s take on this online shooter that you may have heard of called Destiny. Like Destiny, Anthem focuses on the grind for new loot. We could also say that the setting reminds us of Horizon Zero Dawn, but it’s clear that Anthem looks to appeal to the Destiny crowd. And it looks great, so all is well.

When Code Vein was first teased by Bandai Namco, we instantly likened it to the Dark Souls series, which the studio publishes. Code Vein doesn’t look like Dark Souls — it has an anime art style and loads of vampires — but after seeing a little gameplay at E3, it’s apparent that Code Vein‘s methodical combat was indeed derived by the popular FromSoftware franchise.

Batman is DC, and Spider-Man is Marvel, so the two don’t coexist, but that doesn’t mean that their video games won’t be likened to one another. Insomniac’s upcoming Spider-Man was once again shown off at E3, and this time around, we got a better look at the gameplay. Whether or not Insomniac played the Batman: Arkham series, we don’t know, but some of Spidey’s moves, particularly his “perch” and stealth abilities, feel like nod directly to Rocksteady’s take on the Caped Crusader.

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is a weird pairing, we know, but what’s even more strange is how closely its combat mechanics hew to the modern XCOM franchise. The combat arena, which sets up Mario and pals (including Rabbids dressed as Mario and pals), looks and feels like a lighter take on the very intense XCOM games. Needless to say, we’re excited that Mario + Rabbids is a thing.

When Ubisoft revealed Skull and Bones, we had flashbacks to the surprisingly fun naval combat in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Ubisoft obviously took notice that Assassin’s Creed fans enjoyed that aspect of Black Flag, and decided to ratchet up the pace while turning the experience into a full game.

Slow-motion aiming in mid-air is officially a thing

Earlier this year, Horizon Zero Dawn impressed us on nearly every level. One minor gameplay mechanic, the ability to slow down time when aiming in mid-air, was just one of the many neat mechanics featured. While Horizon certainly wasn’t the first to include such mechanics, it appears that numerous other studios also fancied slow-mo aiming.

At E3 2017, we saw at least four games with a similar slow-mo mechanic — Assassin’s Creed Origins, The Darwin Project, Spider-Man, and Extinction. Slow motion is cool and all, but it’s also apparently a new trend.

What’s with all the bears?

There were bears everywhere at E3. Yes, bears. There were bears on stage and bears in games. From Just Dance panda, to the titular bear in indie game Disco Bear, E3 was bear-y furry this year. We know you need to read more about this, so we did the responsible thing and ranked the bears of E3.

People go bananas when Nintendo simply says a few words

Nintendo showed some great games at E3 this year. Super Mario Odyssey impressed us enough to earn our award for “best of show.” Despite this, the publisher’s biggest news never made it to the show floor. In fact, the games fans seemed most excited for this weren’t even showed. Nintendo may be the only studio that can “reveal” a project without any footage or even a trailer, and create pandemonium.

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During its Spotlight event on the first day of the show, Nintendo said the three little words that every fan has been dying to hear — Metroid Prime 4 — and everyone went nuts. Accompanied by a brief teaser trailer that simply showed some stars in space and the logo, that was enough. Metroid fans had been waiting for that moment for nearly a decade, so we understand. The mere announcement that developer Game Freak would eventually release a Pokémon RPG on the Switch basically stole the show.

Maybe Nintendo shouldn’t even show game trailers anymore. Maybe it should just provide a list of games on the horizon and let its fans do all the talking.

Press conferences? More like trailer roundups!

As an overall trend, the major press conferences are moving more and more away from formal, investor-facing presentations, and shifting toward a series of trailers, with barely anything in between. Microsoft’s showcase, in which it displayed 42 games, had little commentary in between. Sony’s press conference was practically a movie, and Bethesda and Nintendo also had trailer heavy showings. While Ubisoft‘s and EA‘s pressers had more lengthy periods of presenters on stage, there’s no denying that E3 2017 focused more on showing than telling.

VR games are still in the background

While it’s still up for debate whether VR is the natural evolution for the industry at large, at E3 2017, VR certainly didn’t receive as much attention as we expected. At Microsoft’s conference, in which some thought there would be a mention of VR support for Xbox One X, the letters “VR” were not uttered a single time. Sure, Bethesda showed Doom VFR and Fallout 4 VR, and Sony debuted The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR, there was a general lack of “big” VR games. Those three, the biggest ones at E3, are all existing games for traditional platforms. We aren’t saying VR is a fad, but it may be a little while before the technology draws enough players to take center stage at E3.

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