#the three shows have been moved to the end of january 2023 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

callmewrinkles3 · 6 months

Text

Blake and Charlie SFW Alphabet

Someone asked for this hundred years ago, so there u go, besties.

A is for Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

For them it's all about being close. They're long distance for the first year of their relationship, so whenever they can be together they are. Apart from that they have bracelets that sync together when they're apart. They can push a button and it makes the others vibrate. That really helps on bad days.

B is for Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

Blake's best friend is Dan. Also Em, but he tells Dan absolutely everything. He works for Dan and talks to him every day and any time Blake has a worry or concern Dan is the one who helps. Before Charlie met Em she didn't have a girlie best friend. She had lots of close friends, she was close with the girls at work. Her sisters-in-law, Daisy and Katie, are also good friends. Her little brother, Callum, would have been her best friend. Didn't matter how many years there were between them, they're besties.

C is for cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

Charlie is super physically affectionate. She loves cuddling and holding people, she will wrap you in a cuddle to make you chill out and to express her love. Blake isn't huge into cuddles. It's fine, he likes them, but he really only likes it with Charlie. He has a habit of just arriving at her apartment when he can make it back to Perth, getting his travel clothes off, and curling up beside her in bed. It's one of his favorite things to do.

D is for Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

They moved in together after six weeks. Well, found a place after six weeks. They moved in together after about three weeks, the first week of January 2023 Blake just never left her apartment. They found a two-bed because Blake wanted to pay his part of the rent and Charlie wouldn't let him pay for her apartment, and they wanted a bedroom for Cal to stay in. They made it work so well so fast it's scary, but they love it. The cooking and cleaning it's depending if Blake is home or not. When he's around he takes over basically, saying Charlie's been keeping the place standing on her own. But they share tasks, it's not a big issue.

E is for Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

Charlie would say it straight out that she's not in the relationship anymore. She's a psychologist, she wouldn't drag it out. It'd be an end and move on after she tried to save it. She'd have plenty of "we're in danger of splitting up" conversations. Blake would let things fizzle out. He'd be fine with it just petering out and not fully saying it was over till it was clearly done.

F is for Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

Blake would have proposed to her after six months, except he wanted to do things right. Charlie's coworkers were side-eyeing how the relationship was going, her oldest brother Cameron wasn't a fan because of Blake's job and traveling. But they knew it was gonna happen. Blake waits until the first anniversary of the night they met to propose, and he does it outside the bar they met in.

Charlie was all in from day one. The only real fight they had was she was gonna quit her job to travel sooner, but Blake wanted her to think about it. It was a big decision, she worked with at-risk kids and had a group of teenagers that year. She wanted to see the year out with them but also wanted to travel and it was fucking hard. She called Blake her fiance before they were even engaged.

G is for Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

At work they have to be tough in some kind of way, so at home they’re the most gentle thing in the world. There’s a reason why Charlie calls Blake her marshmallow. They’re cuddly, loving and gentle and they just enjoy being home and with the people they love.

H is for Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

Charlie loves hugs. She is too used to having her ridiculous brothers, her parents, and her nephews hugging her all the time so it’s normal. Blake is not the most cuddly person in the world, but Charlie holds him and he relaxes. The weight gets off his shoulders magically. Charlie just rests her head against his chest, Blake holds her tightly and the world feels a little less heavy and complicated.

I is for I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

A month into their relationship? It was fast, but damn it felt good. Charlie was having a really bad day, a lot of ghosts coming back from the past to haunt her. Blake just hugged her, kissed her head, and said he loved her no matter what. It was easy, simple and it felt right. It was as easy for Charlie to say she loved him too.

J is for Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

Charlie turns into some kind of a monster. She gets too possessive and then she is all over Blake. She just wants to show the whole world that he is her man. He doesn’t blame her, that's who she is and he loves her like crazy. He even loves that she gets possessive. It's a silly little reminder that Charlie loves him and sometimes he really needs that reminder. His arm around her waist while she's kissing his cheek and whispering all the dirty things she's gonna do to him?? He loves it. Blake is exactly the opposite. He gets quiet and starts overthinking, totally convinced one day Charlie is gonna find someone better. Blake doesn't want to make her feel like he's being needy when that's exactly how he feels. He doesn’t wanna get all clingy but he can’t help it and as soon as Charlie realizes she is all over him.

K is for Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss? Where do they like to be kissed?)

Its constant pecks on the cheeks, lips, and forehead. Charlie will lean her head up for Blake to kiss his forehead as he's been going somewhere, even if he goes to the kitchen and Charlie is in the bedroom. Charlie loves being able to peck his forehead and get out of bed. Half the time he'll pull her back in and it ends up in a makeout session or simply some extra cuddles. It's always those places or the neck, chest, hands, and tights for both of them.

L is for Little ones (How are they around children?)

Blake is not used to being around them. He likes kids, but it's only Isaac and Isabella until he meets Charlie and the football team of nephews and nieces she has. The second the kids meet Blake they are obsessed with him -like the rest of the world really- and they’re always fighting about who gets to sit with Uncle Blake apart from Aunt Charlie. When Lulu is born he’s the most hands-on uncle and godfather that ever existed. Uncle-niece time are a real thing for him and he never misses it. Changing diapers, feeding bottles, making sure she takes her naps, reading bedtime stories, you name it, he’s on for it. Charlie LOVES kids. She works with kids, so it's kind of logical, but she loves them for real. There’s nothing she wouldn’t do for those little ones. She is the coolest aunt in the universe and she likes spending time with them, sometimes even more than spending it with adults. She is the one who taught Blake everything about changing babies and how to read them so he would be ready when Lulu was born. And Charlie really really really wants to have a bunch of kids, but just with Blake. He is the only one she would do it with. Not a football team, but a couple would be awesome.

M is for Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

Depends really. If it's race weekend and Charlie is around it's setting the alarm ten minutes earlier to be able to cuddle before getting up. If they’re in Perth and Charlie is working it's the same alarm ten minutes later, then Blake would do breakfast and drive her just to spend some extra time together. Weekends off?? That's the real deal. It takes forever to leave bed, just doing it when they're hungry.

N is for Night (How are nights spent with them?)

Chilling. When they’re home Charlie works 9 to 5 so she normally tries to go to bed early. It's dinner and a movie or something on the TV and a lot of cuddles. If it's traveling it's room service or going to dinner with Dan and Em. Weekends it depends too. Whatever they go it’ll end up with them cuddling in bed.

O is for Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

Charlie opens up nearly immediately. She’s used to talking because of work, it's normal for her. Blake takes a lot more time than she does to open up and talk to her, but he loves to listen to her talking. They both do.

P is for Patience (How easily angered are they?)

They’re patient, especially with each other and their relationship. They know long distance is not easy so they’re as patient as they can be. Charlie has a PhD in Psychology and works with kids, so she is the most patient human being. Blake works with Dan so you figure the answer.

Q is for Quizzes (How much would they remember about each other? Do they remember every little detail mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

They both have a REALLY good memory, so it's easy to remember all the little details. They actually really love to remember little details about each other, it's like one of their things in the relationship.

R is for Remember (What is their favorite moment in their relationship?)

For Charlie is their first morning in her bed. Messy hair and sleepy face just waking up Blake melted her heart in a way she could never imagine. It was soft, comfy, loving, and slow and it was the most wonderful morning of her whole life without a doubt. For Blake is their first kiss. Without a doubt their first kiss. Charlie made him feel something he never felt. Her hands holding him and her shy smile when they kissed changed everything forever. He would never forget that. Ever.

S is for Security (How protective are they? How would they protect the other? How would they like to be protected?)

They're extremely protective of each other, but Blake is way worse when it comes to Charlie and their relationship. He saw firsthand how the media and some people in general treated Em and he knows it's different, but he doesn't want that happening with his Charlie. When they started dating he had a long talk with Em and Dan and they promised to help in whatever they could so she could keep living her life as normal as possible. Charlie doesn't hide she's dating Blake, she posts stuff about them, but her Instagram is private, and if someone asks her her boyfriend works in 'sports management'. That's as much as much as they can do. But then if you fuck up with one of them you're dead. As simple as that. Charlie fought one of her brothers and all her lifetime friends and she never regretted it, just like Blake never regretted fighting Michael to defend her.

T is for Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

So. Much. Effort. When they’re not traveling together permanently they try to make every single second together count. There’s a cute little date every time Blake is home or Charlie travels to see him. Anniversaries are a really important thing for them. Blake is always getting her gifts, especially cute little things from places he visits because he knows it would make her smile. Everyday tasks are also shared, but it depends on the time. When Blake is home he is the one taking care of most things in his free time and while Charlie is at work. When Charlie is in London with him she takes over the house tasks. When they live together it’s shared. What never changes is the dates, anniversaries, and gifts, not even when they are together every day. That keeps happening.

U is for Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

Charlie’s worst habit is her anger. She gets angry quickly and holds it. She won’t forget or forgive at all. Blake’s is he doesn’t completely stress about things. He got used to working in such a stressful environment that at some point he learned how to not stress and Charlie doesn’t understand how he does it.

V is for Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

Blake knows he has to look like a person to be on camera, but that's about it. Charlie doesn’t care really. She’s got her red lip and her heels but other than that she doesn’t care. And they love each other no matter what. Dressed up to go out or in pjs on a day off, they love each other and that's what they care about.

W is for Whole (Would they feel incomplete without each other?)

Absolutely. They fit so perfectly well in each other’s lives that they have no idea how they survived all those years without each other. They would be a mess if they broke up, that's why they put so much effort into their relationship.

X is for Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

They joke saying in bed they’re the most boring and vanilla couple that ever existed. They’re not into anything kinky. They’re not into lingerie or anything of that. They just want each other. It's not a must really. If he can choose he rather have her naked in bed. Charlie feels the same way. If she wants to get some fancy thing he’ll appreciate it, but if she wears her regular cotton unmatched panties and bra he’ll be happy. For Blake is about having something normal in his life. He’s in this fancy shiny world, but Charlie is real and normal. And for Charlie is just about wanting someone who loves her for her.

Y is for Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

They both hate lies. It's an instant dealbreaker. When they started to date they promised, among other things, they would never lie to each other. A tiny little lie for a surprise or a present? Fine, perfect, normal. But that’s it. The rest it's a big no.

Z is for Zzz (What is a sleep habit of theirs?)

Charlie hogs the blankets and she’s ALWAYS cold. She’s always cold in bed. In England she has the winter blankets in the summer. During summer it's not an issue, but in winter she hates herself for taking the covers from Blake. They sleep holding each other and then it's not a problem, but if one of them accidentally turns? Charlie takes the blanket.

#call it what you want fic

12 notes · View notes

flodaya · 11 months

Note

Wow as long as they’ve been together she finally stayed with him in London from March to mid May. When neither were busy. When has she ever been out there before to have y’all thinking she’s moving to London. Lmao one month long trip compared to his countless trips seeing her. Like did they go on some romantic get away in Cali. But sure she’s moving to London after going there once lol

are we only talking 2.0? okay let’s see

Atlanta for five months together until end of March 2021

Z in LA because of Euphoria from march until november, Tom stretching any possible covid allowed entrance to the US to stay with her as long as possible

spent Christmas and nye in LA, and went to visit his family in early 2021

Tom had uncharted press tour in late January/early feburary all over Europe and finishing in New York, and they met up again in new york mid feburary

they spent almost their entire time on the east coast between boston and new york from March until July, mostly New York, and actually only nyc as soon as Z finished filming challengers

Z went to film dune in budapest but spent her three week break in august/September in New York

Tom finished tcr and moved back to london, frequently visited Z while she was filming in Jordan and UAE

spent a couple weeks in Cali before Christmas, separated for 10ish days, met up again shortly before nye in LA

spent the entire month of January 2023 on vacation in the Caribbean

Z spent feburary between LA and Europe working on her brand deals and award shows

and as soon as her work obligations were done she moved her ass and noon’s to London until tom had tcr press and she went back to LA for work and to visit family

and now they’re both (all three if we’re counting noon) back in london

when before this year would it have made sense or been even possible for her to spend significant time in london? use your brain a little, it will thank you for it

#ask

32 notes · View notes

thatsnothowyoupronouncemyname · 1 year

Text

A Chris Wood Deep Dive

This post will take a deep dive into The Vampire Diaries and Supergirl actor Chris Wood (CW) and why he is not as nice a person as many would like to believe.

Trigger warnings: this post discusses racism, homophobia, misogyny, domestic violence, abuse, and police brutality.

**Disclaimer: I do not endorse the gossip sites and their administrators mentioned in this post, nor do I claim that the information presented here is 100% accurate and confirmed to be such. This post is made up of publicly available information. Sources are linked.**

Part I: Cheating

1. Here are blind items, courtesy of the blog Crazy Days and Nights (CDAN), run by an entertainment lawyer (?) under the nickname “Enty”, from the past couple of years that allege CW has been cheating on Melissa Benoist, his wife of three years, starting not long after the two of them began dating. The latest blind also claims that he was “trying to move onto other people” while still married to her, and even attempting to submit information on himself to gossip sites.

September 2022 (revealed here)

June 2022 (revealed here)

July 2017 (revealed here)

There are others that show that he hasn't been committed to his marriage and that they were likely to get a divorce.

November 2021 (revealed here - where Enty also had a blind about Melissa potentially coming out in the future)

June 2021 (revealed here)

In case you are doubting how trustworthy Enty and his blind items are- it is a gossip blog, so most definitely not 100%. He has posted blind items before that ended up being verified, while others were never proven to be true.

However, with regards to CW, Enty posted a blind item in late October about the Almost Famous Broadway musical, in which CW appears as Russell Hammond, a main character. Prior to the company’s appearance on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Enty claimed that despite the appearance on late night television, the show wasn’t doing well and would be closing after Christmas. It was then announced December 19, 2022 that the show would close January 8, 2023 (Broadway shows usually close on Sundays). Originally, the musical was advertised to have an open-ended run (which is the norm, unless the show is brought to Broadway explicitly as a limited engagement), so there is a distinction to be made between a show ending its run after a while (like The Phantom of the Opera in the upcoming year) or being closed, mostly due to low attendance and grosses that are not enough to recuperate the money invested (like Almost Famous, K-POP or Ain’t No Mo’ in the most recent cases). Enty’s insider information was correct - it wasn’t public knowledge. So, it could be said that this is another case of “where there is smoke, there is fire”. I cannot claim with full certainty that he has been cheating, but there are many indicators that point towards these rumors being based in fact.

2. He'd dated at least four of his co-stars, all of whom were leading ladies on the “almost network” TV shows he appeared in.

First, there was AnnaSophia Robb, whom he met on the set of the Carrie Diaries. They dated for a while between 2013 and 2014.

Then, he was linked to Nina Dobrev, who led the The Vampire Diaries from 2009 to the end of season 6 in 2015. CW appeared on TVD in season 6 (2014-2015), and there were a number of pictures and claims that the two of them dated. Though, it has recently been confirmed by a former make-up artist on the show during a Reddit AMA that CW’s relationship with Nina was purely PR.

In 2016, he dated Hanna Mangan Lawrence, his co-star on the series Containment, which was also produced by TVD boss Julie Plec.

And lastly, CW met Melissa on the set of Supergirl. The two started dating in early 2017 and got married in September 2019.

In the video below (which will play an even more significant role in a second), CW said he “was playing hard to get” when offered a role in Supergirl without an audition by then-showrunner Andrew Kreisberg (more on him later). Finally, he did end up taking the role and moving to Vancouver for filming, partly because he apparently knew "he'd meet his future wife and the mother of his children" on the show.

At that time, throughout 2016, he was in a relationship with Hanna. CW’s twitter fans noticed that Hanna moved to Vancouver with Chris around August 2016 before he started filming Supergirl and the two were seen together there some time later, in November 2016, according to Twitter, so about three months into CW’s time filming. They appear to have broken up in December 2016, some two weeks after Hanna’s last post of CW, though the break up was only reported in early January 2017. So CW’s “hunch” about meeting his future spouse occurred when he was in a serious relationship with someone else. Sounds like a nice, faithful guy, right?

Part II: “First and last”

In 2020, CW was invited to appear on Kevin Smith’s “Fatman Beyond” podcast. As you might know, Kevin (the writer/director of the homophobic movie Chasing Amy) directed multiple episodes of Supergirl, and is good friends with both Melissa and CW. He himself once captioned an Instagram photo with her in 2019 by saying that “[Melissa’s] boyfriend is also [his] boyfriend”, and also posted on IG to congratulate them both on expecting their first child. This proved to be a “lucrative” friendship for CW, as it was Kevin who gave him the voice role of He-Man on Netflix’s animated Masters of the Universe reboot. In the podcast episode, Kevin told an anecdote when him and CW went to see Melissa in her Broadway debut as Carole King on Beautiful in the summer of 2018.

When Kevin emphasized that this performance was, in fact, Melissa’s debut, CW interrupted Kevin to yell that her turn on Broadway was her "first and last". Even Kevin seemed confused for second (at about 42:13), pausing what he was saying to ask, “Is she not gonna do it again?” with genuine interest, at which CW quickly backtracked by saying that he was only kidding.

I get that he was joking, but I think most people would agree that it was a shockingly poor and tasteless joke to randomly throw in there, unprompted. In fact, Kevin told this whole story to highlight how CW was "crying joyful tears" over the fact that his then-girlfriend’s long-held Broadway dreams came true. Why did he feel the need to say this immediately after confirming this was her dream, and one that he apparently shared with her, at that? Yikes.

In that same video, Kevin Smith mentioned that he mispronounced Melissa’s last name for some time as “Benoit”, until CW enlightened him with a joke as to how to correctly pronounce it. Apparently, CW likened the pronunciation of “Benoist” as something that rimes with “moist” (which is true, but he admitted that the joke was of sexual nature at 41:01 of the above video). And while this, too, was an obvious attempt at humor, my impression is that he seemingly has a pattern of making jokes in poor taste about his partner to others, which is definitely not an admirable quality.

Part III: A republican past

Recently, CW was known as a prominent supporter of the Democratic party, most notably tweeting his support for Joe Biden and the Black Lives Matter movement over the course of spring and fall of 2020.

Apparently, his frequent tweets did not go unnoticed and a person who knew him when he was still in high school in Dublin, Ohio, reached out to the gossip website “Blind Gossip” to tell a story about CW’s affiliation back when he was younger. The resulting blind item from 2020 was perhaps the most shocking piece of information I discovered while doing this deep down. Essentially, it claims that CW used to be "super conservative" and alleged that he and his friend routinely stole dozens of lawn signs supporting John Kerry, the democratic presidential candidate running to unseat incumbent president George W. Bush in 2004. The person who spoke to Blind Gossip claimed to have seen the stolen signs in CW’s car. Obviously, the theft of yard signs is a crime. So if this is true, a 16 year-old CW was not only a thief, but also a passionate supporter of George W. Bush. With regards to Bush, I don’t have to detail while he was a terrible president guilty of war crimes - if you are not entirely aware of his catastrophic tenure, you are welcome to google it and read through thousand pieces of evidence that will make clear why supprting should be condemned.

At this point, I have to make it clear that there is no further evidence to corroborate this story other than a person's submission who has seen the stolen signs and to whom he confessed the theft. As I said with CDAN, the trustworthiness of gossip sites is questionable at best. Nevertheless, the blind is eerily specific, and the theft of lawn signs is definitely not uncommon in Ohio or the U.S. in general during presidential elections, so this very well could have happened. But we will likely never know for sure.

Part IV: Performative activism

In spite of his youthful days of Bush-inspired theft, CW is a very vocal Democrat now. Yes, I know that people can grow and mature, and they can very well change their political affiliation over time, but I guess not everyone becomes a passionate democrat after stealing to benefit the GOP years before. Maybe the more liberal ways of Los Angeles genuinely rubbed off on him, or maybe his change of heart was merely motivated by the wish to be perceived as progressive in order to fit into Hollywood. Who knows the truth in his case?

1. Anti-racism

During the 2020 George Floyd protests, he actively advocated for the Black Lives Matter movement (which is great), tweeting his support quite frequently. He even called out and shamed others that posted literally anything else, like the publication Variety for continuing to report entertainment news like they always do (though merely a few months before, in mid-February, when reports of the pandemic had already surfaced and COVID-19 was rapidly spreading outside of China, he was more than happy to repost the news that featured him from these entertainment sites).

He also filmed himself calling representatives, posted an open letter to the president of Elon University (his alma mater), and took photos of himself holding books on the topic.

I wholeheartedly support BLM and anyone who seeks to proactively fight against systemic racism in the US and elsewhere. Except, CW posted a couple of weird tweets that were really not helpful. There were some in particular that clearly centered himself instead of BIPOC voices in an attempt to celebrate his own wokeness, like this one tweet where he gleefully patted himself on the back for tweeting the phrase “Black Lives Matter” 4 years prior.

Since then, he doesn't post about anti-racism and BLM anymore. To be fair, he rarely posts anything other than updates on his career, but he has also become very silent when it comes to activism, even with respect to his own mental health awareness campaign. That makes it seem like he wasn't actually committed to unlearning his racial bias, raising awareness against police brutality as well as white supremacy, and campaigning for Black liberation and equal justice. As others have pointed out before, he probably only spoke up at a time when he thought calling out injustice would benefit his image and only followed suit when he saw hundreds of famous people participate in the outrage sparked by George Floyd’s murder.

And the reason why his self-congratulatory attitude in 2020 rubbed me the wrong way was precisely this: he never seemed to committed to actually doing the work of becoming actively anti-racist, and instead lauded himself for being woke years prior to the events of 2020, even though he himself posted this tweet when the protests first started following Floyd’s death:

This first tweet from that time makes two things very clear: one, that he was absolutely not “woke” when it comes to racism, because otherwise, he wouldn’t have tweeted something like “I can’t believe this is happening” when speaking about police brutality against Black people. If he was, in fact, as woke as he claims in 2016, he wouldn’t have said something like this in 2020. Those who actually educated themselves on systemic racism were, though enraged and disappointed, probably not surprised by another instance of the violent policing of BIPOC in the US - it is an incredibly sad truth that such deplorable acts of violence happen every single day, but of course he doesn’t know that, because he is a white man that is afforded the extreme privilege of ignoring the everyday realities of being BIPOC in the US. Him saying “we shold have moved on from this hate by now” only shows how blind he was to the institutional and permanent nature of racial injustice in his own country.

Second, his rage is nothing but performative. He only speaks up about such topics when he can establish himself as a champion of social justice, but between these highly publicized and scrutinized incidents of racialized violence, he is most definitely not doing anything to unlearn his own biases or to actively participate in these conversations.

2. Condemning Mon-el’s misogyny

Then there's also him describing his sexist, slave-owning Supergirl character as a “puppy” in November 2016 (photo credit goes to @/avvatrice on Twitter) and then again at the infamous 2017 San Diego Comic Con (SDCC), insisting that he may have some less than savory views but doesn’t mean any harm or malice. Said character was not only a former slaver and a raging misogynyst, but he also turned out to be Supergirl producer Andrew Kreisberg's self-insert. Yuck.

Only after Kreisberg was fired in November 2017 and the details of his sexual misconduct were published, did CW write a little twitter essay fully acknowledging that his character, who was given lines that matched Kreisberg's own sexist, disturbing words and views in real life, was a misogynistic, small-minded piece of sh*t.

Photo credit goes @/avvatrice on Twitter.

To be clear, I do not blame CW for the abysmal way his character was written, that’s fully the writers’ fault. But I do blame him for downplaying and romanticizing the character’s unsavory, disgusting qualities for over a year, attempting to portray a sexist, lying white man who fled a planet full of slaves as a harmless “puppy”.

3. Homophobia

In June 2019, CW's mental health awareness campaign IDONTMIND (IDM) released two t-shirts for pride month. So let's see some of his past with the LGBTQ community.

To start with, this is in line with what many companies and campaigns routenely do when Pride month comes around every year, a practice called “rainbow washing”. This refers to cases when organizations “disingenuously use Pride branding for their own gain or to give themselves a deceptive air of liberalism and allyship”. Technically, IDM is a non-profit, and all profits of the campaign support their umbrella organization, Mental Health America (MHA), which qualifies as a 501(c)(3) organization in the US. CW himself was appointed to the board of directors of MHA in 2019, departing from this role in 2021. Nevertheless, the practice of rainbow washing is not solely reserved to for-profit corporations, as it is not just about aiming to bring in more money from those sales, but also about creating the impression that the organization is, in fact, accepting and welcoming towards all orientation and lifesytles.

The reason why IDM’s efforts to raise money for MHA (and the Trevor Project, according to their now-deleted IG post back then) is noteworthy here as a potential example of rainbow washing, is the history of its founder with the LGBTQ community, which the collection was meant to support. A history which is not exempt from allegations of homophobia.

First of all, there is a video CW made with his friend best friend and IDM co-founder Edward Schmit that taps into harmful stereotypes and is centered around mocking gay men. The whole skit is about two men having a pillow talk, speaking in a manner often dubbed as “gay voice” as a way to caricature gay men. Straight men mockingly imitating this speech is not just overtly homophobic, but is also a subtle type of misogyny, since it’s making fun of someone who is “sounding feminine”. They perpetuate the myth that whenever a man has qualities that are traditionally assigned as “feminine”, they must be gay and simply not “manly” enough.

There's also this compilation of him essentially doing the same in different settings, for roles and skits. How he approaches the topic of homosexuality and portrays queer men shows how he doesn’t shy away from tapping into these stereotypes instead of seeking to portray such characters as anything other than mere caricatures that are nothing but comic relief.

And then let’s not forget SDCC 2017 and the cast’s (Melissa, CW, Mehcad, Jeremy, David, Odette, Katie) infamous singing interview, where some of them, notably including Jeremy Jordan and CW, outright mocked the fans for shipping Supercorp.

When asked about Supercorp in the same interview, Katie McGrath defended the fans (at 7:15 of the video):

The great thing about what we do is, like any art, anyone can read into it what they want.

Upon hearing this, CW immediately felt the need to chime in and practically mocked Katie’s comment (at 7:38):

Sexuality is all about others’ perceptions of yours, right? That was sarcasm!

While Katie sought to validate fan’s feelings and interpretations of the show, CW’s facial expressions throughout the entire time they were speaking about Supercorp and his subsequent comment reek not just of some misplaced arrogance that his character wasn’t the hit he thought it would be, but also of the homophobia he wasn’t able to hide away. It’s clear he felt threatened by the incredible response to Kara and Lena’s storyline that massively overshadowed Kara’s forced and problematic relationship with CW character. It is also evident that the fact that many people saw a romantic connections between two, supposedly straight female characters, really bothered him - after all, it was “Karamel” that was supposed to be in the limelight, while any romantic undertones between Kara and Lena were unplanned. CW’s character was brought to the show with the purpose of becoming the lead’s romantic interest, but instead, many fans fell in love with the chemistry between Supergirl and Lena Luthor. To him, it must have been disappointing to lose the attention he thought he would get to a queer ship, leading to this obviously homophobic comment at SDCC.

Interestingly, in January 2020, when it was announced Jeremy Jordan would return for a few episodes in season 5, a fan asked Jeremy whether his character Winn and CW’s since-departed former slaver “were married” in the future. In response to the people who were seeimingly shipping his character with Jeremy’s, CW tweeted this:

His response, particularly the quip “chemistry=too strong”, makes me think that he was either similarly sarcastic here about people shipping two supposedly straight, same-sex characters as he was back at SDCC, or, he was suddenly okay with the fans doing this if it was his character they were shipping and getting the spotlight from the viewers.

Overall, as these examples show, CW’s attitude towards the LGBTQ community is contentious at best. So it was understandably suspect when IDM released Pride merch a mere two years after the SDCC disaster. CW was all too happy to participate in the bashing of queer fans during that San Diego interview, and this attempt to appear supportive of the community was meant to absolve him from and make people forget about his history of belittling LGBTQ people, which he has never acknowledged, while presenting him as a benevolent ally with a charity that fully supports everyone under the rainbow umbrella.

Part V: Work ethic

Most recently, CW starred as Russell Hammond in the musical adaptation of the 2000 film, Almost Famous (AF). Russell is one of the three lead characters, and since CW was the most senior and well-known from the three performers playing those roles, he has been the one to receive top billing most times (even though Anika Larsen, a Tony-nominee, and Drew Gehling were in the cast, too, both of whom have more Broadway credits as well as name recognition in theatre circles and also play principal roles in the musical). In the beginning, he was all over the musical’s social media pages, too, though more recently, he has been featured less and less, and there was even an instance when on a cast photo, they tagged his understudy, Van Hughes, instead of CW, even though he was the one in the picture (the tag was later removed, and then CW was tagged in it).

This could have easily been an oversight on the part of whoever is running AF’s Instagram, but, as some have pointed out, they could have possibly shaded CW for skipping out too many shows, most notably also the one on the day that photo was posted. By my count, he missed about 18-19 shows - and most of these during the week before the company was scheduled for a nationwide televised performance.

In a SiriusXM interview with Casey Likes (the recording of which I can’t find for the life of me), CW explained that he doesn’t have a lot of memories from opening night, which is still more than what he can recollect from the final preview from the evening before, as he was on heavy medication. Apparently, he had been sick for the last few previews before the company’s performance on The Tonight Show, for which he did show up (and ended up getting a lot of negative buzz for butchering the only line in the song he had). One fan account of his, formerly @/chriswoodnetwork on IG (notorious for cropping Melissa out of every picture, generally ignoring her and posting throwbacks with his former girlfriends), claimed at that time that he was on vocal rest, which is in line with what he said himself.

However, those approx. five performances before the Fallon appearance and opening night weren’t the only times he was out for. According to the twitter accounts @/BroadwayCovers and his understudy, Van Hughes, he missed an additional 7-8 performances in November, particularly five in a row before coming back for the company’s appearence on CBS’ Good Morning America on December 1. He was also absent at least four-five more times in December.

These are the CDAN blinds that discuss how unreliable he has proven himself to be as a lead member of a Broadway company that claim that his absences should be attributed to his lack of commitment and questionable work ethic:

December 26, 2022

December 22, 2022 (revealed here)

December 8, 2022 (revealed here)

November 29, 2022 (revealed here)

What’s more is that it is highly likely he got this role thanks to the connections of his wife (though this, once again, cannot be fully verified). One the one hand, in the SiriusXM interview, he mentioned that after Colin Donnell, who played Russell during the musical’s San Diego run, had to bow out of the production due to scheduling conflicts, he joined a company for a workshop and did not have to do an actual audition for the part. On Twitter, @/PotionClass (here on tumblr @magicpotionclass) pointed out that one of the producers of AF was also the one to invite Melissa to lead Beautiful on Broadway back in 2018, and that the musical’s writer (and the original film’s director), Cameron Crowe, is repped by the same agency as Melissa.

While I believe he was in fact sick prior to opening night, the subsequent absences either prove that he is simply unfit to do eight shows a week on Broadway or confirm Enty’s claim that he only wants the fame (which is why he never misses a TV appearence) without the hard work.

Part VI: Standing up for victims of abuse?

One other point of criticism that has been brought up against CW recently is him working with people who are connected to Bl*ke Jenner (BJ), Melissa’s first husband who abused her both physically and verbally, causing permanent damage to her eye by throwing a phone in her face. In this regard, I generally say that actors don’t always have the luxury of picking who they do and don’t want to work with - Melissa herself is currently working on a show produced by Julie Plec, who was accused of racism, treating Black actors and their characters badly, and maintaining an evident racial bias in the production of her shows; while Katie McGrath’s new series, The Continental, will star Mel Gibson, a known antisemite and abuser. So, I was gonna go easy on CW for working with Daniel Sovich on AF. Sovich, an actor/musician, and member of AF’s company is good friends with BJ. Working with him is not CW’s fault, because he clearly wasn’t the one who brought Sovich to the musical and there is only little evidence that they are even friendly.

However, I recently discovered that it was Robert J. Ulrich who served as casting director for the Thirtysomething sequel pilot in early 2020, in which CW was cast in a leading role (though the project was never picked up). It is therefore likely that CW was cast in that role by Ulrich himself at a time when he was already married to Melissa and BJ’s abuse was made public by her. As these pictures show, Ulrich is a good friend of both BJ and Sovich.

Additionally, it was also revealed that he is working with Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B Entertainment, on the development a feature film. It is well-known that Pitt was accused of abusing his former wife, Angelina Jolie, and their children. Particularly in this case, I believe it would be more than possible for CW to try to work on this feature with any other producer who is not a violent domestic abuser.

That makes it a total of three times in the past three years that he’s worked with either people directly connected to the man who abused his wife, or someone who has been accused of doing so with their own family. To be honest, these three instances make me question his support of his wife in the wake of her speaking out, as well as his public commitment to stand up against the abuse of women and

...”not work with those who continue to build toxic work environments.”

That particular comment did not age well.

Part VII: IDONTMIND making mistakes

1. Anxiety

Lastly, I want to mention two more things in relation to CW’s campaign, IDM. In the fall of 2020, IDM launched a new collection titled “Anxiety - Own Your Feelings”. The items in the collection (two sweatshirts, two baseball hats and a tee) were made with the graphic “anxiety” printed with an elegant, cursive font.

The collection immediately received backlash for romanticizing mental illness and using it as an aesthetic/fashion statement to sell merchandise. After even mental health professionals commented to state how harmful and foolish this idea was, IDONTMIND posted the following statement in the comments:

As you can see, they did not apologize for putting out such a collection and essentially attributed the backlash to a matter of opinion and taste. Needless to say, they went on with the launch of these products and sold them as planned, even if they were discounted some weeks later. After the above statement was posted, CW himself seemed to respond to the backlash with this (since deleted) vague “notes app” post on Instagram that did not take any accountability whatsoever or apologize for offending many people, instead trying to tell them they should just forgive him and IDM for the blunder:

Clearly, neither CW nor any of the team behind IDM was concerned with the whole incident, since they chose to sell the collection anyway instead of admitting their mistake and pulling these products.

2. Run IDONTMIND & TWLOHA

The second thing I wanted to include concerns IDM’s Run IDONTMIND program that they launched in May 2021. May is Mental Health Awareness Month in the U.S. and the program aims to encourage people to run a 5k, 10k or half marathon during those 31 days in order to raise money for IDM and their work in mental health awareness. That sounds like a cool thing, right?

Well, the problem is that they basically stole this idea from another mental health organization, To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA - if you’ve never heard of them, please check out this amazing non-profit!), a charity founded by Jamie Tworkowski in 2006. Curiously enough, TWLOHA was created sixteen years ago when Tworkowski designed a shirt which he sold in order to allow a friend to get the mental health care she needed. TWLOHA grew from here into a well-known charity that aims to spread a message of hope and help to people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicidal thoughts. Since their inception, they tried to raise money and awareness by selling shirts and later other types of merchandise that look unique enough to jumpstart everyday conversations about the meaning behind them - over ten years before CW founded IDM with the exact same “business model”.

In 2013, TWLOHA launched the annual event “Run For It 5k”. Every spring, they designate a day when the followers of the movement can complete a 5k to raise awareness for TWLOHA’s work. Prior to the event, TWLOHA usually sells a t-shirt with that year’s graphic and a finisher’s medal, among other things.

Besides Run IDM being an eerily similar initiative, in 2022, IDM even started selling shirts and medals just like TWLOHA always does (though TWLOHA’s medal comes for free if you buy the shirt for $30, while IDM originally sold it separately for an additional $20).

In many ways, IDM seems to be copying TWLOHA - their Journal also bears a lot of similarity to TWLOHA’s blog; they share the same business model, and now IDM is organizing essentially the same events.

Back in 2017, in an interview with TVInsider.com about his new campaign, CW was asked how he came up with the concept of this initiative, to which he said:

“...Then this fell into my lap, this little pocket of stigma awareness surrounding mental health that I felt wasn’t being approached in a way that I felt would be the most successful.”

...”because people wear shirts that say nothing phrases all the time, and by having a meaning behind it, the hope is that something simple like “Hey, I like your shirt, what does it mean?” people can then say “Oh, it’s actually a mental health awareness campaign.” And now we’re having a conversation, now we’re talking about mental health, which is the whole thing is that everyone’s terrified to open up about.”

In this interview, he presents IDM as a brand new idea to fight the stigma surrounding mental health awareness, a topic that he, in his own words, sought to approach “in a way that would be the most successful”. Needless to say, other campaigns with the exact same approach, like TWLOHA, already existed for years before he ever launched his own campaign. So, despite what he said in this interview, his idea was nothing revolutionary and only copied what other organizations while already doing. This doesn’t mean IDM is not doing good work and helping people, but CW definitely should not claim that he was the one who came with the idea to defeat the stigma by selling shirts that spark conversations about mental health.

Part VIII: The rest

There certainly are more rumors and topics to discuss than these, however, I found some of them on forums and blogs as they were mentioned by fans, so I chose not to include them unless I could find other sources for such claims.

What this deep dive was meant to show is that his “nice guy” image is likely just that - an image. Granted, there are many, many people in the industry who are much worse than he is. But this doesn’t absolve him on any of the less than nice things he did and comments he made over the years. He certainly doesn’t deserve the devotion of his fans and I hope some of them will recognize that his squeeky clean image is nothing but a facade that masks some of the ugly truth.

60 notes · View notes

sunflowervoltwentyeight · 1 year

Text

Hello! I wanted to put together a February 2023 fic rec bc I’ve read some very amazing fics so far this year. This includes my January recs as well bc I forgot to make one last month lol anyway, in no particular order, enjoy!!!

Love Is A Word, You Gave It A Name by CuckooTrooke/ @larrydoinglaundry (158k)

After two decades in brutal show business, Louis Tomlinson is trying to restore his tranquility of mind in the peace of Northern Europe where the sun barely sets, Maria's bar is always open, and young Harry has an irresistible spark in his eyes.

Sweet Little You by @rosesforriley (112k)

Harry Styles has been passionately researching artificial pregnancy to give a shot at conception to anyone who cannot naturally conceive for years, and after nearly a decade, he finally cracks it. He's about to make medical and scientific history, and, well, who better to be the first test subject than himself? He's always wanted a baby after all. And who better to ask to help him conceive his baby than his goofy best friend/colleague who wants absolutely nothing to do with being a father? They sure would make a cute baby, wouldn't they?OR: Harry is having a baby and he's making it everybody's business.

Untangle Me by suicxne (103k)

Louis finds himself out of place in LA, unable to get at an itch that’s been bothering him for years. He supposes back in the early days, home hadn’t been a place. It’d been a person. He’d etched it permanently into his skin for fucks sake. It was always him and Harry. Stuck to each other like super glue. Pulled together by some magnetic force, existing in their own bubble. Everyone could see it, but that was half the problem, wasn’t it?It’s not like Louis can pinpoint the exact moment in time when him and Harry fell out of sync. There wasn’t really one at all. It had been a gradual slip, like the tide wearing away at a sandstone cliff. Chipping the solid foundations until there was nothing left to stop the structure falling to the waves below. It’s not like he spends all of his time sitting around moping over a lost friendship, he’s good at distractions. But LA only seems to accentuate the distance between them. Two separate planets, not even in the same solar system.Or the one where Harry and Louis finally get it right.

For As Long As I Can Remember (It’s Been December) by @greenfeelings (128k)

After recovering from a severe accident that causes Harry to lose his memory of three years, he moves to London to start his life over as a star chef. Little does he know that when he falls in love with Louis at first sight, it’s not the first time they meet.

Featuring an unintentional game of hot and cold, Harry chasing memories that won’t come back, Louis burying himself in work to try and forget what he can’t forget, Liam being torn between two of his best friends, Zayn as a moral compass and Niall saving the day with good music and brutal honesty.

Teach Me How To Love by @perfectdagger (70k)

Louis can’t believe he’s third wheeling, again, so he scans the bar trying to find something better to do.

And he does, he recognizes a face.

That face looks angry, almost fuming and Louis takes a gulp from his beer and looks to the other side, pretending he didn’t even see the bloke, pretending he has no clue who that person coming over his way is. “You’ve told everyone and their mother that I’m a bad fucker?!”

That’s how Harry greets him Smooth. Not really. The one in which Harry is bad at sex and Louis spreads it all over town and to make up for it, decides to help him with no agenda of getting anything from it, but in the end, he ends up getting more than he bargained for.

Just Ask Me To by tellmethisisnotlove (120k)

“You’re telling the truth,” Louis whispers.

“Of course I’m telling the truth!” Harry doesn’t even care that he sounds exasperated.

“Oh my god.” Louis grabs the wall behind him as if looking for support. His body slides down against it until he’s sitting crouched on the floor.

He mumbles something but Harry can’t really figure out what it is. He crouches down, and looks desperately at the breaking boy in front of him.

“You’re telling the truth,” Louis whispers. “You were not supposed to–”

“I was not supposed to do what? Tell me please,” Harry urges, taking Louis’ hands gently in his.

Or the X Factor era canon fic where they learn how to be a couple and that not everyone is going to be on their sides especially those with plain white t-shirts and saccharine smiles.

Chasing, Searching, Dreaming by @parmahamlarrie (46k)

Everyone is chasing, searching, dreaming of their soulmate.

Harry has known who his soulmate is since he was twenty years old, and ever since, he has been waiting for Louis to be ready for him. The unexpected passing of Louis' mum, and the fact that now he is the guardian of his twin two-year-old little siblings, just means that Harry is going to have to wait a bit longer.

A soulmate AU full of cute kids, house building, therapy, and a lot of dreaming.

You Can Hear It In The Silence by @imogenleefic (234k)

When Harry Styles received acceptance into a post-grad degree, he knew he could no longer afford his flat leaving him with three options:

1) Moving back into student halls. 2) Becoming homeless. 3) Moving in with his best (and only) friend, Niall, and three of Niall's other friends. He ended up choosing the third option. But it was a close race. Shame one of his new housemates reminded him why he only has one friend. If Louis Tomlinson had to choose one thing couldn't stand, it would be pretentious tossers, having grown up around enough of them. If he had to choose something he couldn't live without, it would be his friends. So he was proper thrilled to move in with his best mates and a couple of other lads. That was until he discovered one of them was the archetype for a pretentious tosser.

In the interest of seeing out the twelve-month lease without killing each other, they both try (debatable) to get along despite believing they were opposite in almost every conceivable way, each having the communication skills of a cucumber, and secrets that had no business be kept secret.

Tired Tired Sea by @mediawhorefics (113k)

As a B&B owner on the most remote of all the British Isles, Louis Tomlinson is used to spending the coldest half of the year in complete isolation, with his dog and the sea as sole companions. Until, one day, a mysterious stranger on a quest to rebuild himself rents a room for the winter. (the lighthouse au part 1)

14/09/2019 by @mediawhorefics (3k)

In mid-September, Harry comes home.

A Tired Tired Sea Coda. (the lighthouse au part 2)

#sorry for posting this 3 times I'm having technical difficulties lol #read #28th appreciation #2023 fic rec #larry fic rec

37 notes · View notes

virtchandmoir · 1 year

Text

A CONVERSATION WITH SCOTT MOIR

At M.K. John Wilson Trophy, I had the pleasure of sitting down with two-time Olympic Champion and three-time World Champion Scott Moir. We spoke in two parts, the first before the free dance event and the second after the competition had ended.

Support us on Patreon (Senior Skaters tier) to get the full audio of the interview right now. Alternatively, follow us on YouTube. Once we hit 400 subscribers, we will release it there!

January 20, 2023

Are you more nervous now, as a coach than you were as a skater? How are the emotions different?

They’re just different. To be honest, I use a lot of the same tactics to prepare, like visual training, but it’s just a little bit different. So my athletes, hopefully, we’ve – my team and I – have prepared them well, at home. And when they get here, I’m trying to figure out what each of them needs in the moment. So I use my visualising skills for the coach that I want to be. And for me, I’m a very passionate competitive person. So most of the time, that means having very clear, simpler thoughts, and clear messages. And then also, the biggest thing that I learned from Patrice [Lauzon] is just calm energy. You know, when you’re going into these high-pressure moments, and you’ve done all the work, the biggest thing you want [is] to look back and see [that] your coach has your back, and is there for you. So really, make sure the athletes know that, but it’s a different feeling as they perform. Obviously, it’s so intense when you’re skating. Because you have the cue on every single thing.

For me, as a coach, you’re learning. So try to enjoy the moment, but also as they compete, the training exposes itself. What can we do better, where do we go compared to the field, compared to what our end goal is? So I find the competition as a coach such great feedback, such great information that I have to be quite sharp. So I don’t find I get as lost in the moment because I have to be on my toes.

How soon after retiring, did you actually sort of fully start coaching?

“Fully start coaching…” I’d say it was about three years. Luckily, I had a couple of years of retirement after 2014 as well. So I kind of knew what I was expecting. And my experience at I.AM changed my outlook on coaching, as well as on figure skating and wanting to be involved. Patrice, Marie-France [Dubreuil], Romain [Haguenauer] and the coaching staff there, Sam Chouinard, Gigi [Cournoyer]. They changed my life. And it changed how I felt about the sport, and they empowered me to be my best self and learn what that is and who that was. And it inspired me to want to do that for other people.

So it wasn’t that long after. We toured, we did all that. And Marie-France and Patrice were always very good role models for us. So they’d kind of given me that, like ‘You go on tour and enjoy‘ and Tess and I wanted to celebrate together. But not very long after – two, three years after – we kind of started thinking – because we’d already retired once and done tours and we’re doing a show – and we just looked at each other and were kind of like ‘This isn’t the same’. We both had other projects that we were putting on hold: her getting her MBA and working for Deloitte, and for me, the skating school. So as much as we miss each other daily, it was time to move on and not perform anymore. And then that, for me, kind of allowed me to start coaching and really dive in. Luckily, my family already had a skating school and they had already been training a lot of the athletes I work with today. And then the collaboration with I.AM really came together. So I came in at quite a high level. It was exciting right from the beginning.

How did that collaboration come about?

Mostly just support from Ice Academy of Montreal. I think this coaching team – they’re so sophisticated and they do what they do so well. It’s a big honour for me to call them colleagues, but I really still, in many ways, see them as my coaches and I think, for them, the coaching doesn’t stop when your career stops. They always want to inspire, and now we inspire each other a little bit more. And they are really great at not just coaching me but allowing me to find my own feet.

So after we were done skating, they just continued to coach and I was talking with Patrice and they had me come in a couple of times and their energy at their rink really inspired me. Patrice had this idea to try and multiply what they had created in Montreal and if we’re doing what we say we’re doing at the academy, some of us should be coming into maturity and hopefully we can create better skating schools throughout the world and kind of make the footprint of the movement a little bit larger. So when he said that, to me, it fired me up. And I wanted to really do my own thing. But I would have done my own thing, I think, in Montreal, if I hadn’t met my wife and missed my family and all that stuff. I still think my home is in Ontario. But professionally, I was a little bit upset, because I would love to be beside them in Montreal and join forces. And then when they came up with this idea, and we started to talk about it, and I had kind of been thinking of it as well, like ‘Hey, is there any way we could have a partnership?’ And then Patrice kind of took it one step further, and had this idea of it being a campus of our I.AM schools and so that kind of came very naturally. We were building it all up for a long time in the background, before we actually launched. And yeah, we’re still learning. We’re still young – what they built over many, many years – so they get a lot of SOS phone calls. And even just to share resources helps us a lot: dance coaches and known professionals. Like having Sam Chouinard in a couple of weeks ago really helps our kids. There’s just a certain environment, and it’s hard because we want to be our own, but what they do, they do so well. So we model a lot of the things we do after them as well.

Your first sort of, I guess, big team that came to you after you became a coach was Christina [Carreira] and Anthony [Ponomarenko]. How did they approach you? And what was that sort of communication like?

Yeah, they were looking for a new training environment. And they approached both Patrice and me. And we were, you know, – Patrice and his relationship with US figure skating – already working with the top three teams in the country – top two teams in the country now. And we are trying to decide whether there was enough room for them. And that was before MIDA [Michigan Ice Dance Academy] was up and running. And so we have this idea that they can kind of be the leaders of our school with the help of the Montreal staff. So we created this collaboration, which is what we see the whole movement being: all about collaborating in a combination of different people. For me, I think the most powerful and enlightening moment this year was bringing in Madison [Hubbell] and Adrian [Diaz] and seeing them, now, kind of taking flight, taking ownership, really helping our athletes and then going to Montreal, seeing Guillaume [Cizeron] choreographing and working with so many athletes – what a great opportunity for us to try and expand. And so it’s been pretty cool to see all of that happening.

But Christina and Anthony, they kind of threw us into the game right away in Ontario. We love working with Christina and Anthony every day and seeing what they bring to the school. Their competitiveness and their willingness to learn. They are already accomplished skaters, but we’re trying to rebuild what they’re doing.

Just to get a maturity and keep taking them to the next level. And they’re all in and you know, there are some days when I think ‘Oh, man, should you be trusting me with this?’ But we come into the lab everyday together and we try and be our best and because of that I find the job of working with them extremely rewarding.

You have a few other Canadian teams as well like Sales and Wamsteeker, Hensen/Lickers, and recently had Alyssa Robinson and Jacob Portz move to you. Can you talk a bit about them, their training, and what they’re up to?

Absolutely. Haley and Nik here at Skate America – Skate America. Jesus. Sheffield. Anyways, what’s it called…MK dance? Cup of China? whatever we’re at! But to be at a Grand Prix is big for them. They need to get in with the best of the world. In Canada, we have a thick middle field, and they’re amongst that field and they’re looking for ways to make a splash. So yesterday was quite disappointing for them. They didn’t want to be in that position. They’re looking to fight back today. But everything for them is there.

Same for Christina and Anthony – they had to do a lot last year. They’re redefining themselves, trying to push themselves to go in different directions. They’ve skated for a little bit longer, in terms of their age, but now they need to really challenge themselves to kind of break through. So it’s not easy when you get into this arena and the Grand Prix – everyone’s good. So we’ll be hoping to have a breakthrough performance today.

And then Alyssa and Jake – we were very pleased to get the call from them. Alyssa’s from down the road for me – about an hour down the road, but down the road in southwestern Ontario. She was in our synchro program at the Ilderton Skating Club before she ended up at West skating with Jacob so we’re very happy to have her home. And I think they’re an interesting team. They’re gonna make quite the splash. We love how they’re, again, they come in, and they buy in a bit more to our style. And they bring their best every day, It’s just kind of what we demand of our athletes. And they’ve been great. And it’s been tough. They came halfway through the summer, because of schooling stuff. At the beginning of summer really, but for us, that’s halfway through the summer. And they had a couple of performances early on that we didn’t think would be possible to be honest, because everything was so new and so fresh. And we’re like ‘Okay, let’s just see how it works out‘. And it worked out really well in the first couple events. And now we’re at a point where we’re trying to get them to look more mature, get them to really take a step because they give us these little really refined glimpses of maturity and speed and power. We want them to bring that to every performance. We did an event a couple weeks ago, where we were very happy with how they were performing in practice, in the lead up, and the whole goal was to try and make them be quite aggressive. So they did that until the performance. The performance they still kind of shied away to try and be clean. Of course, which isn’t the goal but really hard for an athlete to try and get away from so they have some growing to do but we’re very excited about them.

And then Nate and Lil – they’re in Austria right now. And I’ve worked with them since they were knee high to a grasshopper, it feels like, I’m very proud of the work. My mom and my aunt have developed the school and Sheri and Cara, my cousins, and Justin Trojek they’ve really brought them from the grassroots up. And now we’ve kind of integrated this team and we’re all working together. But we – Madi and Adri and I – feel very fortunate of the work that they’ve done to bring them to this level. So for Lil and Nate, it’s about getting them exposure this year, they were a COVID Junior Grand Prix team, you know, they were due to have some international experiences and didn’t get that –obviously – because of the pandemic. So for Skate Canada to send them to Austria was a big deal for them. That’s their first international event ever. And they started out with a bang, they’ll be skating like now-ish. And every opportunity that they get, they just seem to kind of organically grow. And we’re very, very proud of them for that. And it’s little things, you forget what this sport teaches you. But as a coach now, I reflect on it much more – rising to the moment, being good people, but demanding the most of yourself every day. It’s fun to see kids I’ve known since they were 13 and 14 and see them really grasp some of those concepts and hope that it can serve them well in their life after skating.

Yeah, I know Lily and Nathan have a lot of fans already. And they were very excited when they got an international.

Good! I’m happy for them. They have a certain quality and they relate to each other really well on the ice. And that’s becoming more and more consistent. So that’s fun.

How do you decide which programs you choreograph versus having your skaters work with other choreographers?

We’re still kind of refining that, actually. But it’s a team decision really. So we meet and we’ll decide and we’ll make different decisions. Last year, I kind of oversaw everybody and was just kind of picking and choosing I guess, and then, depending on how it was going, make little tweaks. But almost everybody on our team really believes in collaborating. Our best example of that I think is Christina and Anthony’s free dance with Madison and Marie-France.

I loved what I saw in practice.

Yeah, I can’t wait for you to see it today. And then Adri and Madi and myself, we kind of all had a hand in Phantom with Haley and Nik. So everybody kind of gets a touch and we all throw ideas around and then it’s not that complicated. We sit and we have a vote ‘What do we think we should do? What’s the best strategy?’ And then we pick and I try and steer and give as much guidance as I possibly can from my career. But the goal is to have so many good people in the room that the decisions are – maybe not everybody agrees – but we know that we can give certain projects to different people. So that part, we’re really starting to really enjoy. The first little bit, I was quite intimidated by that. Now, as I empower my team and see them really grow and blossom, it’s one of the most fun parts of the whole process.

How do you feel you’re maybe growing as a choreographer yourself?

My choreography style is changing. I was very lucky, I think, to have the influence of Marie-France and Romain. I see myself more as the element guy now a little bit, as well as like ‘Okay, that’s working. Let’s try this!’ And trying to challenge the creative team. And then I jump in and get my hands dirty on certain projects, when I feel inspired, but I think I stepped back a bit this year, for some, and that really allowed me – instead of having to do so many projects – to focus in on certain things and be a little bit cleaner. I was overwhelmed a little bit last year. So I had to kind of learn that lesson a little bit. And then my choreography style is changing, just in how I prepare. So it’s a little bit more calculated. You know, I was crazy inspired last year. But it was crazy inspired, things that I wanted to do. So I am learning. And then Marie-France and Romain, I mean that’s why I am this way. One of the reasons they’ve been so successful is how they personalise their choreography for each student. And every program is different and it plays to the strength of that particular student. So I am just starting to figure out how to use that. I think I have a long way to go. Choreography is one of the things that I enjoy doing. But it isn’t a natural strength for me, I really have to work at it and I embrace that. And I’m very proud of some of the product that we’re able to create. But I also get a huge sense of relief. Having Adri and Cara and Sheri and Madi in the rink, I can just literally cruise over and be like, ‘uggghhhhh this count of eight is killing me.’ And then they seem to be able to wave their wands. And it’s not like ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ It’s like ‘Yes, we have a sweet team!’

Do you have a particular style you prefer choreographing?

Most of the styles I prefer, I haven’t been able to do yet. I think more of the classic ice skating stuff. And then a bit more passion driven. I think we’ll get get there as our athletes mature. But yeah, I like the classic skating style. But then I also really like a bit more modern. The athletes relating to each other, being able to tell a story, kind of cat and mouse, back and forth. So that’s my strength, I think. I always really dove into that as a performer, I’d get to work with the best woman in the world, Tessa, so when we got into those energies, it was so much fun. So helping these athletes kind of create their own and how they play off each other. Obviously, it’s a little different sometimes. But I think when we have that interaction that’s more playful, that’s when the product is the best. I won’t say I’m doing my best work, because my style, mostly, is exposing what lives within the athletes. Like when I work with Marie-France, she’s a genius. She’s able to switch things and change things and has a unique perspective. She works like hell to have this. I think that’s what people don’t understand. She works for it. She puts a lot of prep time in, but there is a certain touch. She just understands the speed of the game. It’s her that convinced me that ‘No, you have to awaken it from within the kids and let them take ownership’. Especially when we get to the elite level of kids in their 20s. They’ve all grown up TikTok dancing, and they want to be involved. They would like to create [and be involved in the] process more and more. So we have to empower them to take ownership of their own work.

How did Madison and Adrian approach you?

I approached them. We had Christina and Anthony and Haley and Nik came up within the year and we were hoping for our school to continue to grow. And I worked with Madison. I worked with Madison the last couple of years on their free. I felt like, in that project, more of a passenger, that got to point out the obvious things. And they kind of ruined choreographing for me for a little bit, because they’re so damn good.

So I could be like ‘I want you to try this.’ And it wouldn’t necessarily even make sense. But Madi and Zach they can make anything [make sense]. And then the first time it’s gold, and you start to think ‘Holy shit. Maybe I am a great choreographer.’ And then you work with a 10-year-old and 12-year-old and you’re like ‘Oh, no, there we go. I’m back again.’ So when I was working with Madison, I would skate over to Patrice and Marie-France, as we’re trying to grow this academy and just be like ‘You know, Madi and I, we get each other.’ She’s a genius, and how she works through things. And I kind of said ‘I want her in London.’ And then [came] the end of Adri’s career. We grew up skating together, Adri and I, but I worked with him only twice. And I saw big change in Adri. How much he’d matured in that year, how he matured in his performance, how he matured and how he handled himself at the rink and his passion I always knew. So they’re a little bit of a dream team for me. So I’ve made a list. I won’t tell you who else is on the list, because I’m hoping that they’ll end up on our team as well – one day – but they were at the top of my list. So it was another dream come true moment. At I.AM Ontario, our wish list goes: to be an I.AM academy – which happened – and to have Madi and Adrian at our campus. So we had our two first wishes. We’re hoping for a third. They were all in as soon as we talked about it. Now we wanted to be sure because Madison still performs, and Adri – and we’ve made that very clear – if he wants to perform he should. So they have that clause too as they discover themselves. They’re allowed to do that.

So this season, a lot of changes have happened with the rules. What’s your opinion on there being no pattern in the rhythm dance?

Yeah, I go back and forth on that one. What I said yesterday in the meeting – and I have to tip my cap to the dance tech committee that they’re asking us, trying to poll everyone and to work collaboratively, you create an ice dance event that everyone likes – but I don’t mind it. I don’t think there’s a major flaw right now. I miss pattern dances a bit. The problem with pattern dances is how they’re judged. I like pattern dances because of the old-school patterns on the ice. Speed, dance position, like the older style of ice dance, and nobody really seems to care about that anymore. So I always wonder, why are we keeping it around for key points when it’s not really the spirit of the dance? But I do miss it in the program this year, I would remove PST and put pattern dance back in. I thought the choreo step is fun. I think we can change the pattern to make it even more fun. But we need to be a little bit more exciting for the audience. And I think the choreo step has done that, when people turn on and everyone has access to good dancing, so to have a little breakdown moment in the program, I think that’s fun.

What are your opinion on the new choreo elements?

Love ’em. I would take more. Yeah, I like the choreo elements. I’m a little jealous that I never got to do any of them.

Do you have a favourite, maybe?

I liked the new jumps quite a bit. I always love choreo lifts. I think we need to open the freedom of the rules as well in the lifts but I’ve really enjoyed the choreo lifts, and the jumps are kind of like mini lifts so just to have a sequence of little jumps is great too. So just to have the freedom to create.

I mean really, any of them, the slide. I’d like it if they were marked to be a little bit more subtle instead of like on the big music all the time. But we’re finding that you got to battle with what scores well and what completes the program. I’d like to see a little bit more of that but other than that I really like the choreo element. I think it’s appropriately marked, the amount of points you get is good, and it affects the second mark. It helps you build a program instead of the cookie-cutter, which is tough challenge with this new system. We call it the new system, [even though] it is 20 years old.

What’s the process like for finding music for your teams?

It’s different for everybody. We don’t give music ideas to our teams until they bring some first. So mostly our more mature teams, we discuss the direction they want to go. And we talk about it. And then pretty much, we kind of go back and talk as a coaching team and then say ‘This is kind of what we think.’ And a lot of times I’ll call Marie-France and Romain and discuss things, just to double-check, especially if they get stuck. Or even, some of the judges and people I really trust.

Sort of a bigger question. But looking back over your career, what are some of your favourite programs that you’ve done?

Well, Moulin Rouge came from Tessa and I’s heart and soul. And with Marie-France and Patrice and Sam all collaborating – It’s a special one. It’s not the most original one or groundbreaking, but it came from our souls. And we love the music. And so that was probably my favourite in the end. And then programs are so much about the maturity of, I guess, the stage of maturing that you’re at. And little ones like Valse Triste, Umbrellas, you know, they have a special place in my heart as well. And also, we went back into Pink Floyd for our last number, because the Pink Floyd free dance is probably the project that I connected with the most. It felt like a great opportunity. And we didn’t get the chance to really train it and deliver it as we wanted. That’s hard. I mean, it’s art, right? So I think depending on what phase I’m in in life, I like to go into different directions at different times. But I think Moulin Rouge because it’s kind of the culmination of all of them into one program.

What’s it like training skaters that grew up being a fan of yours and see you as an idol?

I think it’s a bit of a challenge, actually. A lot of them are fans. And naturally, they kind of want to be like you. But of course, sport is so revolutionary. If they’re like me, they’re not gonna do very well, even now, it’s four years out. There’s a challenge in getting them to believe in themselves. And it’s powerful because I can remind them of the stages. Even the athletes that I train – they see me in 2018 and assume that that was me in 2008 or in 1998. That’s just not the case, my coaches will tell you that.

Did you use any music now that you vetoed from your career?

There are a couple of pieces that we ended up using. To be honest Christina and Anthony’s Summertime – Tess and I always wanted to use. We love the score, but we just didn’t have the piece to go with it. We also talked about using it for Madison. And when Marie-France brought it back on the table this year – and with that first little cool piece – it was kind of one that we had always wanted to skate to and brought it back for the students. But there’s a couple of those kicking around, I’d say, yeah.

Might we see another one in the future for one of your teams?

Yeah, I don’t know. It’d be interesting. Our teams are developing so much and hopefully maturing, day in and day out. So it’s tough to tell where they’ll end up in a year’s time or so.

Do you have the same coaching method for every team or do you adapt to different teams?

I adapt on certain things. I try my best, anyways, to adapt to things. I’m still getting my legs in coaching. But most teams need different things, from team to team and we’re an elite sport. So it needs to be a personalised plan, not everyone’s gonna come to conclusions the same way. So I try and motivate. Mostly what I do is to coach every day [like I coach] in competition. So they’re not surprised.

Do you think your time as a skater and longevity as a skater helps you coach a different way?

I think so. Well, it’s the same thing with longevity as a coach. Every experience brings lessons and kind of puts more tools in your toolbox that you can use. So I think so, I really think it does. We were in a lot of situations and can at least understand what the athletes are going through. And I think that’s what makes me a powerful young coach, just because it wasn’t that long ago. I remember some of the feelings exactly. So the hard part of that is putting it through the right filter and making sure that it’s what’s right for them, not how I handled it. I can sympathise with what they’re feeling. But then help them come to a solution that’s right for them.

With Christina and Anthony – Anthony had surgery in February, I think you said, and was off the ice for some time. You’ve sort of been in the opposite situation.

Yeah, I’ve been in Christina’s shoes.

Did that sort of experience help you with how to help Christina during that time?

It did help me build a plan for Christina. I will say I was pretty shocked with how little help Christina needed. She handled the time off brilliantly. She came in, did her work and did a couple of extra projects. That filled her cup – things you wouldn’t usually get to do, like that ice princess movie thing that she did. I think there were dancers and Sam Chouinard choreographed some stuff so they were in the background. And so she was in Montreal for a couple of weeks doing that. But then pecking away, working a lot on her turns. They came in April – May, really – of last year, and then we started to pick things apart and work on everything. And there were a lot of things that she caught up on in that time when she was off – some of her turns – and to see her technical scores at this competition reflect that made me happy. But also she didn’t get crazy about it either. You know, from my experience, I was like ‘Okay, I’m gonna really go for it – really improve.’ And when Tessa came back, I wasn’t supportive, and I was kind of aggressively ready to go. And Christina was super supportive to Anthony, worked on all of her stuff, improved day in day out. So I thought she really handled that masterfully.

You had two couples here in Sheffield [Haley Sales/Nikolas Wamsteeker & Christina Carreira/Anthony Ponomarenko.] What were your overall thoughts on their performances?

I think it’s kind of very different performances. For Christina and Anthony, it’s the first competition of the year. So they’ve been doing really well with Anthony’s recovery and his ankle, but they’re stepping in with teams that have competed three or four times already. And they are coming off a really frustrating year for them. So I think it was a big week for them to perform and it filled them with quite a bit of pressure. And you started to see some of their maturity come through a little bit, where they relied on their training, focused on the cues that we’ve been working on at home, and had excellent performances. Which is exactly what they have been doing in training.

Haley and Nik had a bit of a tough week. They were struggling with a little bit of some sickness, but have been training quite well. And this week, it wasn’t the skating that I’ve been seeing at home. It was still strong, there were no major errors. So I think people need to remember and understand that the heat of competition can be crippling, and the pressure is much greater than the run-throughs they do day in and day out. So I think they felt that pressure a little bit. But they were able to still compete well, at least. Good, with no major mistakes. But they’re missing a little bit of the magic that makes Haley and Nik Haley and Nick.

Their connection and speed across the ice is a big one. And then just a little bit of the finish on their elements. They’re fantastic lifters, but they’re starting to understand how to move on the ice as well throughout their footworks, particularly him. And this week, under the pressure, we kind of went back a little bit to square movements and not letting the glide at the blade be effortless and in ice dance, you know, you really pay the price for that. It’s a great exposure for them to be at a Grand Prix, just like last year, and every time they get out, they learned more and more. And so we’ll sit down and take the lessons from this one and rebuild for the next couple competitions.

Do you set goals for your skaters each season or maybe each competition?

We set goals – the skaters set goals and I help them. I kind of see myself as the consultant. And they’re in charge. They’re driving the ship as it may be. So yeah, we set goals and we renew those goals often and share them with the team and then make sure that they’re very clear and honest with their team and themselves on what their goals are. It’d be different goals than you’d think. So very rarely, or most of the time, it’s not on placement or comparison. It’s more so on performance or getting levels or points. But, I mean, you could have seen a little bit of that as well too, with Haley and Nik. We certainly, and they certainly, don’t see themselves as that far behind the other Canadian team. And they were yesterday. And they didn’t have a great skate, but I think it kind of deflated them a little bit. We’ll be looking for them to respond a little bit better the next time that that happens and hopefully, that didn’t get the best of them. We’ll be doing kind of a recap.That’s the part I love about coaching, right? You get those lessons and sport is a beautiful thing. It’s not always pretty, it’s not always triumphant. But most of the time it gives you what you deserve, you can take what you must from it and then we have a great opportunity to grow.

What are your thoughts overall on this competition, the crowd here?

I’d like to come back every year, if I’m being honest. Britain did a really fantastic job – England and the city of Sheffield – of hosting this event. The crowd was electric. You know, I kind of liked the smaller venue, everybody in their seats, ready. It was a full arena at every event, and that brought a certain amount of energy to the building. I think, still recovering from COVID, with people not used to skating in front of groups – like some of these young athletes, you forget, they came up during COVID. So they haven’t had these big moments. I think of Lilah and Lewis in front of a home crowd with a packed stadium. That’s a pretty cool moment for them. So we really enjoyed our time here in Sheffield, and it says a lot I think about the British ice dancing fan or the ice skating fan. Happy that they were able to step up and host a Grand Prix.

I think that’s almost everything I wanted to ask. Away from skating, what are the sorts of things you do to de-stress?

Well I’m doing lots of things now, away from skating. Settling into a bit more of a, quote-unquote normal life, or at least a rhythm in life. Everyone talks about the transition from being an athlete, and I was definitely no different. I never, or haven’t yet, had depression, or any of that stuff, but certainly, it’s just finding your rhythm, right? And what you’re gonna do, even like the first little bit, you have a cheeseburger or a beer, and be like ‘Oh, I’m so bad.’ And then it’d be like, wait, no, I’m 35, this is very normal. So it still just kind of catches me off guard that stuff. But I’m very fortunate, I found the love of my life. And we got married earlier this year. So that took up a lot of our time. And we have a baby girl. So that has enriched my life in a way that you expect and everyone warns you about, but I just had no way of preparing for it – knowing how beautiful it was going to be. And then I play sports and I’m not great at very many of them. I’m on the ice every day, but I still play hockey a couple of times a week. And then I’m Canadian, so I curl a little bit, twice a week now, too. So we’re busy. We’re a busy family. And then the life of a skating coach feels like it’s 24/7 a little bit, so there’s not a lot of extra time left in the Moir household!

—Anything GOEs

#scott #off ice #i.am ontario #coach #mk john wilson 2022 #interview: anything goes #i hope scott never loses the ramble quality #and hearing his thoughts about choreo #if tessa even hinted at wanting it #he'd have her in a binding contract with i.am

35 notes · View notes

blazehedgehog · 7 months

Text

The Gradual Degradation of Fortnitemares

Getting to be so let down with Fortnite lately. Much like how people get excited for Scream Fortress, Fortnitemares used to be this incredible thing. All the houses on the map would get decorated with inflatable witches and pumpkins and ghosts. There were spooky graveyards to explore, all kinds of fun stuff

As Fortnite continued and they leaned more and more on the lore, the map got away from urban environments. Fewer houses means fewer decorations. And Fortnite started getting into a habit where chapters got shorter and shorter and shorter -- Chapter 1 was something like three or four years, Chapter 2 was two years or less, and Chapter 3 was almost one year on the nose, ending just after Fortnitemares in 2022. Dataminers suggest that Chapter 4 was also supposed to end after Fortnitemares 2023, but the new map isn't ready yet, so supposedly Epic is considering a tiny interim season just for December so they can take Christmas break in peace and worry about launching the new chapter when they get back. I think that's fair.

Going back to the urban environments -- Chapter 1 Fortnite was all about towns. Greasy Grove, Tomato Town, Pleasant Park, Retail Row, all of them were full of houses. Retail Row would even get a Halloween Store like the map's own personal Spirit Halloween that you could visit if you wanted to see all the Halloween decorations in one room. It also had multiple farms, and farms mean things like corn mazes and more.

Chapter 2 was, in every way, a better Fortnite. Everything was more organic feeling than the Chapter 1 map was. It felt less tile-based. And it still had plenty of towns -- notably, Pleasant Park and Retail Row carried forward, and close to one fourth the map was covered in a vast forest that could be kind of spooky even in the summer. Also, that Halloween store got an upgrade, moving to its own location -- the Halloween MegaStore, which not only housed TONS of decorations, but even displayed previews of Fortnitemares Skins. As Fortnitemares drew close, the entire map was enveloped in spooky, endless fog, showing off Unreal Engine 4's great volumetric lighting, and a special "Nightmare Royale" mode was enabled, where you respawned as ghosts that could terrorize the living.

Chapter 3's map was hard fantasy. Coastal settlements dominated by "The Seven", whose buildings were charitably described as "We have Star Wars at home." What urban environments it had were quickly destroyed -- not much reason to put up decorations in a demilitarized zone, after all. A house or two dotted around the map still featured the very rare Halloween decoration, but things were so dire that they straight up teleported a spooky farm into the middle of the map right before Fortnitemares just so they'd have something. Whereas Halloween would take over large portions of previous maps, the farm and the map's giant "reality tree" were the only places designated as Halloween-safe zones. Getting near them would enable a special vision mode that would suddenly make everything look dark and foggy, but 99% of the map remained un-spooky. It was, bar none, the worst Fortnitemares in the entire history of the game.

Chapter 4's big new feature was its modular map. Sort of like how they dropped a farm into Chapter 3, in Chapter 4, huge segments of the map changed from season to season. Cyberpunk cities just dropped out of the sky one day, as did Japanese pagodas, plus vast (and annoying) jungles dug up from underground. The map even launched with spooky castles built right in by default and maybe the biggest farm the game had ever seen. Even back in January, I was thinking, "this could make Fortnitemares awesome again."

Chapter 4 has been a mess. This Gamespot article talks about what a jumble it is -- and before you ask, yes, Fortnite does have a storyline. Or it used to. Chapter 4 was apparently planned out well in advance and then (as per rumors) the order of everything may have gotten mixed up as crossover plans shifted or were canceled entirely. Friends and I figured this was what also spoiled Fortnitemares 2022 -- a rumored Lady Gaga concert ultimately never materialized, despite the season's "spooky rave" motif. The suggestion now in 2023 was that Epic had apparently been banking on a Persona 5 crossover to launch season 2, and when they weren't allowed to use Joker, it threw all of Chapter 4 out the window with it. The game has spent the last 11 months spinning its wheels and under-delivering on map updates -- sure, each season sees massive changes, but Fortnite used to actually mean a Fort Night, with bi-weekly updates that would shift a dozen mini-stories forward bit by bit.

Chapter 4 does none of that. The map changes once every three and a half months and that's basically all you get outside the thinnest strands of MMO-style quest progression and an overarching narrative that has gone from "not really making much sense" to "beyond a waste of time."

So stop me if you know where I'm about to go with this: Chapter 4, Season 4 launched maybe a month ago, and as of a night or two ago, Fortnitemares 2023 officially began.

That big spooky castle? They dropped a tropical resort on top of it.

The biggest farm in Fortnite history? So far... untouched.

Halloween decorations? The most you get is a candy bowl sitting on a curb of some houses.

There are little bits of Halloween flavor -- the tropical resort is owned and operated by a Playboy Vampire (in the James Bond sense, not the porn sense). Since the launch of Nitemares 2023, he's vamped out, and you get a special shotgun that shoots wooden stakes. But he's also trivially easy to fight, even by the standards of Fortnite's usual PVE "boss" characters.

youtube

Nitemares staples like the Pumpkin Launcher and the Witch Broom have returned, though the Broom has less "returned" than been wholesale replaced with something that, to me, feels considerably more nerfed compared to the original item (it also doesn't make the cool sounds anymore).

And, like, it's early, yet. We could still just be getting started. Maybe the best is yet to come. Epic was apparently telling streamers that Fortnitemares this year was "going to be big." But I look at things right now and I feel the same underwhelming feeling I've had all of Chapter 4. And I look at the news lately that a lot of Epic people, guys like Donald Mustard, Sergiy Galyonkin, and one of Fortnite's chief artists, Drew Hill, have all left the company over the course of Chapter 4... plus the state Fortnite itself lately...

And it's starting to feel like there might be writing on the wall.

Over a year ago, half jokingly, a friend told me about his theory for the eternalization of Fortnite. Epic would probably never retire the game, but they would restructure its output so that new seasons would funnel into the game's growing Creative Mode, effectively turning it from a Battle Royale into their equivalent of Roblox. And the more time goes on, the more what he said is starting to feel right. Fortnitemares also features the game's newest UI refresh, which pushes creative maps right on to the main home screen in something that looks more like Amazon Prime Video than a video game.

Now, maybe more than at any point in history, Fortnite feels the most like The Product and not a game. One designed to take less resources to maintain and continue to generate some amount of infinite money.

I never expected the good times to last forever, but it's sobering to think Fortnite's best years may be long gone and never to return.

#fortnite #chapter 4 #fortnitemares #halloween #epic games #Youtube

9 notes · View notes

euroquision · 9 months

Text

Creative or Copycat: The SloMo Dancebreak

Three countries came to the 2023 competition with a SloMo-inspired dancebreak to share with the world. Whether you're a fan or not of these songs, my question applies to all of them: Are these dancebreaks a creative take on Chanel's trend? Or are they lackluster copycats? Let's find out in the latest EuroQuision essay!

Written and Researched by Beatrice Quinn

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. I, for one, consider large sums of riches or compliments about my cheekbones more flattering, thank you. In Eurovision, however, sharing truly is caring as it is no secret to anyone that trends, ideas, staging elements, and even songs themselves are imitated amongst countries the following years – for better and for worse. Should any country pull off anything impressive that manages to have a lasting impact on the viewers, be prepared to see redo’s, redux, and remixes of that very same idea. If you thought the visuals of Mans’ ‘lil balloon child army was “neat,” be prepared for one loud Russian man to get sent hurtling through the depths of space while somehow still inside an arena in Sweden. If this reference means something to you: cool! Please stick around for a later edition of this series where I talk about how 2016 was plagued with “Heroes”-VFX ripoffs. For this first edition of “Creative or Copycat,” we’re gonna watch some dance moves in slow mo-mo-mo, and decide whether the decadent dancebreaks of Eurovision 2023 were creative or copycats.

Where were you when Chanel first performed “SloMo” at Benidorm Fest on January 26th, 2022? After having had access to the songs for Spain’s golden goose egg of a National Final since Dec. 21st, 2021. In that month, fans were treated to early standouts like Tanxugueiras’ “TERRA,” Rigoberta’s “Ay Mama,” and Rayden’s “Calle de la lloreria.” Of the 14 total songs, there was a dembow pop gem called “SloMo” by debut-artist Chanel. Previously a regular face in the Spanish musical theater scene, the Cuban-born singer’s song was catchy, fun, and quite the earworm. However, the song itself sonically didn’t stand out as other selections. Without visuals, it was easy for many fans to overlook Chanel’s potential. By no means did people hate her song – until she did well in Eurovision, but that’s a different essay – but it simply didn’t get as much “hype” as some other songs did. That was, until the first live show…

Chanel takes to Havana-esque stage and begins what can only be described as a meticulously staged, choreographed, and executed ensemble dance routine to what is still just a solo female pop song. As she interacts with the drop-dead-gorgeous dancers around her, we launch into the first chorus. As we’re hit with the “mo-mo-mo” of the chorus, the lights strobe to create an attempt at a “slo-mo” effect before the dance resumes with impressive synchronicity. Chanel continues to dominate all corners of the stage, letting her hair down and repeating the same dance routine as the second chorus hits us. Now remember: for the last month we had only been hearing this song where the second chorus just repeats the same words identically once more; not a very creative direction, but it’s fine, I guess. So as the song gears up to continue as expected, Chanel’s jacket comes off and the music drops. Before you have any moment to prepare, Chanel and her dancers whip their entire upper bodies to the floor and back up as the most impeccable, well-oiled, show-stopping dance break captures our attention and doesn’t let go until Chanel has gone from shaking every angle of her body, collapsing to the floor, high-kicking, flipping her hair some more, and getting back up before singing the rest of the motherfuckin’ song.

So. It was unsurprising when Chanel won the jury vote and ended up winning Benidorm Fest and taking “SloMo” to Eurovision. But now there was an issue presented: Chanel surprised us by saving the dancebreak until the last minute, ensuring that people who had already been listening to the song were surprised with something new, while the dancebreak on its own was still thrilling enough to capture the attention of first-time viewers. But now everyone has seen the dancebreak, and really I mean seen it. Every ESC Pre-party, on Instagram, TikTok, Chanel’s publicity team was going nutso in the buttso with this dance. How was it still going to impress come the night of the Grand Final? Surely would it not have worn itself out? Lucky for the viewing audience, Chanel proved to still have more to give on the night of the final. No, it sadly wasn’t a super-secret-surprise 2nd dancebreak, but there were sparks falling from the ceiling, a fan being tossed across the stage, a new vocal run, and new choreo for Chanel herself where she proceeds to do another vocal run while being dipped.

Naturally, this impressed juries and televoters alike and placed it right up on the podium with a flashy bronze medal. And the success didn’t stop there: on Dec. 31st, 2022, “SloMo” dethroned “Euphoria” [SWE’12] at #1 on the Eurovision Top 250 – the annual radio show where everyone around the world votes on every ESC song in existence – which hadn’t placed lower than #1 since its victory in 2012. So why am I using two full pages and some change of my article to sing the praises of Chanel like she was the second coming of Christ? Because she may as well have been! Spain went from colonizing the Americas to colonizing the Bottom 5 of Eurovision finals ever since they started qualifying for said-final. Out of the 19 editions of ESC Spain has been in since the introduction of semis, 12 of those were in the Btm. 5, with one being dead last in ‘17. Compare that to their Top 10 finishes: a whopping 3. Then: in a brand new National Final format, a Cuban-born singer takes her debut single to ESC and get Spain on the podium. Spain couldn’t even get back in the Top 10 for nearly a decade without getting an artist from a land they colonized, performing a song in a genre of the country Spain colonized–

"Hello!"

"My name is Lynda Woodruff, and I’m the official spokesperson of the EBU. I’m here to remind you all, along with Ms. Beaches Quilt, that Eurovision is a non-political song contest. Now, back to EuroQuizzin– EuroQuestion– Quision! EuroQuision."

Sigh.

Lynda, you get a pass because you’re universally loveable. But we’re not gonna pretend that an international song contest with audiences and artists from countries that have significant histories of geopolitical conflicts, while also at most times actively having geopolitical conflicts, sometimes with other competing countries, is somehow “apolitical.”

However, Spain and colonization isn’t what we’re here for. We’re here to remind ourselves why this is called The SloMo Dancebreak. This is by far not the first dancebreak in this contest’s history, but this song’s dancebreak is associated with a legacy, a redemption after taking a risk and crafting an amazing live performance featuring a stellar new artist. And on top of that, what did we get in 2023? A whopping three acts that contain what we can qualify as a SloMo Dancebreak, and thus we get to decipher: was it creative or copycat?

Ok I promise: I’ll shut up about SloMo after this and talk about 2023. You’ve been so great and so patient, get yourself a treat. I’ll give you a sec.

*waits patiently*

Got a snack?...Great! So the last thing we need to get in writing is what actually “characterizes” the SloMo dancebreak. Like I said, people have danced here before. Other than the legacy and why people like it so much, what’s unique about the SloMo dancebreak/what rules a SloMo or non-SloMo dancebreak? And this is what I love about the concept of “rules” in Eurovision is that there are none – other than the legal ones and ones the producers make up and other rules thereof. But in a spiritual sense, there are no “rules.” Therefore, some rules can be bent and reconstructed. Anyway, my general rule about what makes a SloMo Dancebreak is its essence, and the execution of said dancebreak is up for interpretation. If we were to look at the SloMo dancebreak structurally and how it works in the song, the break itself occurs around the metaphorical 3/4ths point of the song. That is, typically: after the 2nd chorus and either during/part of or in place of the bridge, all occurring before the final chorus. Performance-wise, a SloMo dancebreak is when the lead artist is the unobstructed focal point of the dancebreak. Additionally, the dancebreak is intended to be a noticeable break from lyrics/lead vocals, as Chanel performs no “vocals” during her break. Another important note is that the SloMo dancebreak was not a solo, even though Chanel was the focal point. She had her heavily-involved backup dancers all up in her business from start to finish; her dancebreak was like the one moment where it was just mostly Chanel herself in focus. What comes with this is a certain attitude about the dancebreak – remember how this is more essence than execution. SloMo’s dancebreak commands attention, performing choreography that at minimum looks very impressive to the Eurovision audience, and typically carries a sense of “Should I stunt on the hoes? I think I’m gonna stunt on the hoes.”

So! Are we all agreed on why this dancebreak is significant and what qualifies it? Amazing! Then let’s get to our three acts in question. The SloMo Dancebreaks of Eurovision 2023 are, as I’m sure you already know:

“Solo” [POL] by Blanka

“Unicorn” [ISR] by Noa Kirel

“Future Lover” [ARM] by Brunette

And while I hope this reminder goes for every article I publish, keep in mind I will genuinely attempt to be as objective as possible. In theory, that’s what all of these articles are about: objective deconstruction of Eurovision songs/acts. While I can and will happily share personal opinions where I think appropriately/most comically advantageous, the topic at hand is one that I think merits detail, context, and scrutiny no matter my personal preferences. With that being said, we’ll start by going alphabetically by country. So let’s all decide to be good, do good, and look good with “Future Lover.”

PART I: FUTURE LOVER

After 2022, where a simple folk pop song that finished 20th landed on the fast track to soon hit a billion Spotify streams, Armenia had quite the shoes to fill. Instead of trying the same thing twice, “SNAP” and “Future Lover” are jarringly different songs, especially in the case of composition. Even compared to the 2023 line-up as a whole, Brunette’s dynamic ballad about the anxieties, insecurities, and passionate wants about love is scored with an orchestra that creates a truly dynamic journey through just three minutes. Chilling vocals over a solitary piano soon becomes a soundscape of strings, light percussion, and a noticeable build that ends up thrusting us into a spoken-word verse. Not only is this a unique song for 2023, this is unique in comparison to many Eurovision songs of recent years. On top of this, Brunette is alone on stage while singing atop of a flat, angled, white pane as projected lights and graphics transform the pane into a morphing panel or lights and images. All of this put together creates a truly unique and memorable Eurovision entry, but I know what you’re thinking:

"Where's the dancebreak?"

Well don’t worry! Even though the song in studio/the music video was released without any such dancebreaks, so when Brunette put down her microphone and the song momentarily dropped, audiences were in for a surprise as she began what I personally describe as an abstract contemporary dancebreak. Important note: while I do my best to take it upon myself to research the cultural relevance behind many Eurovision entries, I am not an expert on everything! So, if there’s any cultural context behind Brunette’s choreo, anyone who knows more than myself is free to let me know!

Whether or not you were wondering, hoping, or jonesing for a dancebreak, we got one! Let’s compare and contrast, shall we? Brunette’s dancebreak is similar to Chanel’s in its location in the song, at about the 3/4ths marker. It contains no lyrics (other than amorphous “Oh-oh’s” we’ve already heard) and served to us by Brunette with a distinct “Stunting on the hoes” vibe from her commanding eye-work and fluidity in her routine. Her moves also bring her from standing positions, down to the floor, and back up by the end, similar to Chanel’s choreo. Taking another page out of the dancebreak handbook, Brunette’s dancebreak was kept a secret until the live performance, which we didn’t see until Eurovision itself as opposed to Spain’s NF. The dancebreaks of each song are even the same length: 8 measures of music/8 counts of 4. Of course we can’t overlook the glaring differences. Noticeably, Brunette is all by herself on stage with her emotional-support ambiguous white panel. No sexy backup dancers are there to lift Brunette off the ground and perform other such tasks that Chanel’s team did for her. Brunette’s dance also does not come after a 2nd chorus; “Future Lover” has a slightly unique form in that the song goes Verse - Chorus - Verse - Dance/Bridge - Final Chorus, so simply there’s no 2nd chorus to be found. In my opinion, putting a dancebreak into a song that already has an unconventional structure and exists in a genre that’s much more ethereal ballad than pop power is a risky move, despite it being an enjoyable dancebreak regardless. Another risk Armenia took was the fact that there’s multiple instances during the dancebreak where the screen goes dark and obscures Brunette’s dancing; something that “SloMo” does not do.

Perhaps this is what kept Armenia away from a higher result overall. Coming 12th and 13th in the jury and televote, respectively, this may not have had the same success as Spain had the year prior because “Future Lover” by all accounts is just so much more unconventional for the choices it’s making. It already exists as a song that’s hard to dance to, and doesn’t seem like it would be enhanced by a dancebreak. This is one of the biggest factors as to what makes this dance creative or copycat: does it enhance the performance in any meaningful way? It’s also very important to note that something doesn’t need to be “necessary” to enhance the act. This is Eurovision, people; if we start asking “But is this necessary?” we’ll undo the very fabric of Eurovision. Australia has a DeLorean on stage, Austria is singing about Edgar Allen Poe, and I have seen more elderly Croatian men in their underwear than I ever anticipated seeing in my life; none of this is “necessary,” and that’s why we love Eurovision. Moving on.

“Future Lover” is a very hard one to decipher. A good result does not make one dancebreak better than the other if we’re just trying to judge the dancebreak itself and how it functions in the song/performance. In the case of Armenia, I would argue Brunette’s dancebreak is a creative interpretation of the SloMo Dancebreak. Nothing about Chanel’s performance felt like it was copy-pasted into “Future Lover,” and Brunette herself is clearly a capable and confident dancer. The song already being unconventional can be a risk to appeal to juries and televoters for different reasons, but that didn’t stop Brunette from adding some creative and unexpected flare to the performance. In my thoughtful opinion, I could’ve seen Armenia finishing Top 10 with juries, but alas, the points given have been given. Ultimately, what I think saves “Future Lover” from being a copycat dancebreak is the fact that it is a song that attempts to create a dancebreak unique to the song and performer; there aren’t many other songs and dancebreaks that sound/look like “Future Lover.”

RESULT: CREATIVE!

PART II: UNICORN

Free Palestine.

Anyway! With the important business out of the way, let’s talk about Israel’s song. And no, I’m not gonna waste your time asking you if “you wanna see me” talk about my Eurovision hyperfixation for another essay. You’re already here, you’re already on part two, I know you wanna see me talk about Eurovision. However, if I were to ask you three times if you wanted to read my article, I wouldn’t be surprised if you just said no. Anyway, I’ll touch on this lil bit soon. Let’s talk about the song!

I need to begin by talking about the musical horse in the room which is the fact that “Unicorn” is clearly three different songs stitched together, three songs I call “DNA,” “Watch Me,” and finally “Unicorn.” These songs exist within three different parts of the song. “DNA” are verses one and two, including the earworm of “Phenomen- Phenomen- Phenomenal.” “Watch Me” is my nicer name for the dancebreak section, as the first draft name “Black Pink Is Calling Their Lawyers” was too wordy. Lastly, “Unicorn” itself exists in the chorus where the lyrical simile of “stand[ing] like a Unicorn” occurs. While the dissection of “Unicorn” could/probably will be an essay all on its own, I promise you this is important. To give you the SparkNotes edition, here’s what makes me think “Unicorn” is three different songs:

Musically: the instrumentation of the verses, choruses, and dancebreak are all almost completely different. The verses have an electronic composition beat with crisp, punchy music that has no connection or transition into the sudden power ballad it becomes in the chorus. This difference is especially jarring considering that “real” instruments are used in the chorus primarily, whereas the verses have some percussive string instruments here and there as embellishments. The dancebreak is the most egregious offense where this sudden electronic build comes out of nowhere and uses a meter/beat that we haven’t yet heard and could not sound more different from the chorus if it tried. The song jumps genres and compositions with no connecting motifs or callbacks.

Lyrically: We start by singing about our DNA and if you’re gonna do it (spoiler: don’t do it). Then we start singing about…unicorns? And how they stand? And the power of said unicorn? My point here being: the lyrics of the verses and the chorus literally have nothing to do with each other. In verses about writing a new book and how phenomenal it will be, we go back to these comparisons to a unicorn that don’t really mean anything. “I got the power of a unicorn.” What “powers” does a unicorn have? Jesus I’m tired.

So what does this have to do with the dancebreak? I’ll finish explaining once we do a quick compare and contrast. These two dancebreaks are more similar than “Future Lover” was to “SloMo.” No main vocals, a small costume change/reveal, lead act supported by attractive and skilled dancers, the hoes and their impending stunting, and many dance moves that involve impressive stretching and posing of various limbs. However, “Unicorn” goes to numerous lengths to differentiate itself from “SloMo” by doing things such as announcing the dancebreak before it begins; again, the offer seems pretty hollow given the fact that you’re probably gonna start dancing even though I’ve given you a clear “NO” in response. The dancebreak also falls at a notably different point in the song: the end! When you look at the time stamps of the song, Noa stops “singing” at 2:15, meaning the last 45 seconds of that 3-minute Eurovision window has her not singing at all. 45 whole seconds! So where the SloMo break lasts 8 counts of 4, “Unicorn” (starting from “Watch me” and not “You wanna see me dance” because, well, she’s not dancing yet) lasts a whopping 16 counts of 4; literally twice as long as the break in “SloMo.” The routine itself, once you’ve watched it upwards of twelve times like I have (because I take my research seriously, dammit!) you begin to notice these dance moves are more akin to…poses?

Roll with me here: the dancebreak starts, Noa hits that impressive backbend into a frontwards drop, bringing her to the stage floor. So naturally, her next set of moves consist of a backwards roll, some yoga-like poses where she continues to impress with her control by lifting her legs and kicking, then whipping her hair in time with the beat of the song. Up to this point, I’m genuinely impressed. Then, she hits what is literally a downward-facing dog position, and then goes back down onto her knees and slides to the floor to do the splits over her own body. So I don’t think it’s totally unreasonable for a viewer to at this point start to think “Yeah this is really cool, but like, there’s not so much dancing going on.” Then once poor Noa is finally allowed to stand upright, her dancers join back in and they perform a series of synchronized moves to the “U-NI-CORN!” blasting into our ears. So why are we suddenly in this new genre with a new rhythm, new instrumentation, and new pacing while Noa performs a series of admittedly challenging moves but are ultimately glorified “poses.” Also: an assisted backflip at the end? Another thing I didn’t ask for.

So as you can see, “Unicorn” is not an easy one to pin down. Going back to my analysis of the song and how disjointed it feels, I think the dancebreak itself is the most alienating way to end this song, especially because we don’t hear Noa sing literally anything else after she starts dancing. The fact that we’ve just dealt with two sets of verses and choruses that sound like two different songs, this Black Pink homage dancebreak looks flashy but doesn’t actually provide character or flavor to the song as a whole. It brings ah flavor, yes, but I don’t know what I’ve been tasting for the last 2 minutes and 15 seconds, I don’t know what I’m tasting now. Therefore, I shall be labeling “Unicorn” as a hybrid creative copycat. It is definitely creative in the sense that it didn’t attempt to do the same exact thing “SloMo” did in terms of execution, song style, dance style, etc etc. However, what makes it also part copycat is the fact that I don’t know why or how this dancebreak even made it into this song. To me, it almost feels as if the dancebreak was something they knew they wanted to do from the beginning, but then wrote a song that didn’t have natural space for a dancebreak. So they then compressed the verses and choruses to the first 2/3rds of the song and slapped the dance in at the end and called it a day. This reads as fairly inauthentic and ill-considered. Compare this to “Future Lover” and how yes, that song also didn’t “need” a dancebreak, but remember: necessity does not dictate something working or not working. “Future Lover” carved out a natural space and time within the song to create a dancebreak that sonically fits in with the rest of the song and provides a solid build of momentum to the final chorus. “Unicorn” and their K-Pop-influenced dance (which was more posing than anything) sticks out like a sore thumb and attempts to distract from that by being incredibly flashy.

RESULT: CREATIVE COPYCAT

Anyway, creative copycat is what I’m stickin’ with. I’ve already wasted enough of my own time listening to and watching this song several times over. Please tell me I don’t have anything worse waiting for me after this song—

PART III: SOLO

Son of a BITCH--

“Solo” is a song. By definition. And I too found myself asking the wrong question of “Why is this dancebreak here? Was it really needed?” a couple times. And in full transparency, yes: Poland is 37th in my ranking of 2023. However! Let the record here and now show that I will attempt to give this dancebreak a fair shot just as I did for the two prior. In fact, let’s start with a guessing game! I’m going to list out some key characteristics about a dancebreak, and it’s up to you to guess if I’m talking about “SloMo” or “Solo”! Ready? Go! GUESS! THAT! DANCEBREAK!

This dancebreak in question starts with a costume change/reveal and the lead performer flips her hair vivaciously. The music of this dancebreak is nearly entirely percussion; drums, rhythmic clapping, and maybe including one or two musical highlights that exist elsewhere in the song. There’s a quick one-two beat where the dancer thrusts a part of her body in time with the beat, the dancebreak lasts for 8 counts of 4, and it ends with the lead performer being handed her mic from a backup dancer. So now you guess: which dancebreak am I talking about?

…Got a guess? WRONG, it’s: both of them. Here’s the thing: initially I was going to start with a compare and contrast list like I’ve been doing, but I quickly realized that this is all “compare” and no “contrast.” The only thing that might noticeably be different is that Blanka is doing significantly less dancing than Chanel was. This is not an attempt to say that Blanka can’t dance or wasn’t dancing at all. I saw her up there in those heels hitting some moves, she definitely danced. But did she stunt on them hoes? While Chanel was going from upright and down to the floor and back up again, Blanka had no moves that were anywhere near as complex or physically demanding as Chanel. Meanwhile, everything else seems lifted right out of “SloMo” and given an off-orange coat of spray paint and messily slapped together. For fuck’s sake, one song is called “SloMo” and the other is “Solo.” The names literally rhyme and use the same letters, minus a singular “M.” I know, I promised I would be fair and objective about this analysis, but I’m also genuinely just working with the information I’ve been given. If I close my eyes and just listen to the dancebreak, it sounds like I’m listening to a demo of “SloMo.” And if I open my eyes to the onslaught of on-screen effects Poland is treating me to, I see what I interpret as an intermediate backup dancer version of “SloMo.” This dancebreak is almost unapologetically a copycat of “SloMo.”

RESULT: COPYCAT

I’m almost sad that this is the shortest section of the three analyses, but sadly it’s just the most obvious offender. I’ll end this section by sharing two things. First: I don’t harbor any hatred or resentment towards Blanka, she’s just a performer doing what I’m sure is her best. My disappointment is at the greater picture of Poland in Eurovision and how I feel they have incredibly unique things to offer, just like they have in the past. We don’t need this kind of thing from Poland or any other country for that matter. Second: in the second verse, I had always heard the lyric “Bet you regret how” as “Bet you’re a Grey Hound” and I didn’t realize that until the writing of this essay. In my defense, the next line goes “What goes around comes around” which actually rhymes. Whereas “how” and “around” are near rhymes, “hound” is a perfect rhyme, that’s all I’m saying.

PART IV: CONCLUSION

So there we have it. Three different dancebreaks, three different results. I think it would be most helpful to end this essay with re-examining why this question of “creative or copycat” exists, specifically in relation to something like the SloMo Dancebreak. Trends and the recreation of them have always been and forever will be core to the essence of Eurovision. In the process of uniting Europe through music and participating in a cultural exchange, countries trying to put their own spin on successful trends will be inevitable. So let this certainty be a reminder that simply trying to emulate a trend or anything of the sort is never an inherently bad thing. It is not something to be looked down upon or just labeled as unoriginal without thought or consideration. Inside every Eurovision song and performance exists artistic value and intention, to varying degrees, and that is what should decide whether emulating a trend is a positive or negative thing.

If I could somehow magically communicate this message to the artists and delegations of not only Armenia/Israel/Poland, but to all Eurovision competitors, it would be this: Following a trend will simply never be enough. What proves most effective is doing something that elevates and enhances the performance. Despite the fact I think Israel’s dancebreak is a “creative copycat,” I also can’t deny that it objectively did its job the best out of the three we’ve discussed here. But this is also another flawed line of thinking: If a song got a good result, that must mean it did everything creatively, right? Not always! One day when I make a “Unicorn” deconstruction essay, I’ll elaborate on my theory that the song did so well because it’s the most “Eurovision Movie”-sounding of all the 2023 songs, but I digress. Until that essay, thank you for joining me in another EuroQuision think piece! Truly hope this one was phenomen- phenomen- phenomenal for you all to read.

8 notes · View notes

trustandobedience · 1 year

Text

Trust & Obey – Thoughts from January 1, 2023.

As we enter the new year, I’m reflecting on the weight those two words have had on me since September. Trust and Obey – they seem like simple things on the face of it, something every “good” Christian will tell you is a part of life. However, when faced with actual challenges in life, I’ve found that trust and obedience are harder than the words imply. As is often the case with following Jesus, things do not always go the way we would have them go, especially with regards to our future plans and the things we want for ourselves. His plan doesn’t always line up with ours, and that’s hard to come to terms with.

If you’re anything like me, you love having a plan for literally any situation that comes your way. You’ve got that Type A, practical personality that means your every move is well thought out and considered before being made. And, if you’re like me, then you are absolutely devastated when things don’t follow the established plan. Whether it’s missing the plane you were meant to be on or something as simple as waking up an hour later than you’d planned, you just can’t handle the uncertainty and anxiety that comes with deviance from the plan.

And that’s an okay way to be! The world needs thinkers like us to hold it together and keep it spinning on time. Although we often get a bad rap for not being as easygoing or agreeable as the “free thinkers,” the world’s creative types, we are needed at the end of the day to make sure that the dog gets fed on time and the clocks keep ticking in tandem. We are important; valued for combating the very things that often cause us distress. That bring the order and stability that we are uniquely and unquestionably able to bring to a chaotic world. We show God’s orderliness, His plan and pattern through the way we establish our own structure in our day to day lives. We are living evidence of a Creator who refuses to leave things up to chance, who establishes order in keeping with His character.

However, sometimes it just feels like we’re getting in our own way, doesn’t it? I mean, life would be so much easier if I could just go with the flow, let things like disrupted plans roll off my shoulders, shrug it off and keep moving. But I can’t. I haven’t ever been able to, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. So, how do we navigate our lives in a way that glorifies God when it feels like the things we plan won’t come to fruition?

We have to trust His plan. I know, I know – it’s trite, and even I’m tired of hearing it on my bad days. Trust me, I would rather manipulate a situation until no semblance of the original plan remains than move forward without one. Giving my plans over to Jesus and trusting that He will do infinitely more with them than I ever could is HARD. It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, and it’s made harder by the fact that it isn’t a one-time deal. We have to give up our own sense of control, our ideas for what we want or deserve out of life, and we have to keep doing that time and time again until the end of our days. As Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” There will never be a time when His plans are not better than ours. There will never be a day where what we think we want is better than what God wants for us. If our wants and desires are not aligned with His plan for us, then we will continue to be disappointed, and we will end up disillusioned with Him if we aren’t careful.

If you grew up in the church, or have attended church for any stretch of time longer than, like, three weeks, there are several verses on this topic that you’ve probably heard multiple times and memorized at one point in your life. We can start off with Jeremiah 29:11 - “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” We don’t even have to look past the very words of this verse to get confirmation that He not only has plans for us, but that they are plans for our good, to give us hope. Psalm 33:11 confirms this once again, saying that “the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations,” and Psalm 32:8 tells us that He will “instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; [counseling] you with my loving eye on you.”

Of course, the “poster child” (or poster verse, if you will) of trusting in the Lord is Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” This verse is about as clear as it gets! We are not meant to trust our own thoughts and opinions over the Lord’s, no matter how wise we think we are or how much we know about a situation. When the Lord calls us out of a situation we want to be in, there is always something else going on that He knows about and we cannot see. Since we know that His ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, He has plans for us, and that those plans work for our benefit even when we can’t fathom how, we can rest in Him and give Him our trust, our thoughts, and our plans for the future.

Indeed, we can even see implications in scripture of where a lack of trust in the Lord caused Him to delay the enactment of His plans (Matthew 13:58, “And He did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.”). This does not mean that the Lord’s plan is in any way derailed or misplaced, but rather that the Lord wishes to partner with us in the fulfillment of His plans for us. He wants our trust and obedience before He gives us the good things He has in store.

So, since we can see clearly at multiple points in Scripture that the Lord has good plans for us, how then should we live? How can we live out the trust we are meant to have in His plans and provision? Well, that’s where obedience comes into play. No matter what the Lord says, no matter where He wants us to go, what He wants us to give up, or who He wants us to forgive, we are called, as His people, to obey Him in all things. A point in the Bible where this idea is made clear that has stood out to me is the story of Jonathan and his armor-bearer from 1 Samuel 15. At this point in Israel’s history, Saul is king and the Philistines have dominated the Israelites completely, making God’s nation subservient to them in more than one respect. Jonathan, Saul’s son, decides to attack a Philistine outpost without informing his father and taking only his armor-bearer, a personal assistant of sorts, with him. Jonathan shows tremendous faith and trust in what the Lord would have him do, and obedience to what God said, by taking a step back and asking for His guidance before going through with what he wanted to do (verse 10). The Enduring Word Commentary on this chapter names Jonathan as having a “Romans 8:31 heart: ‘If God can be for us, who can be against us?’”

Jonathan showed wisdom and complete trust in the Lord in this instance. He knew that his heart might be wrong, that his human emotions and thoughts were fallible and might be leading him astray, and so sought the Lord’s guidance before making a move. Enduring Word makes the important distinction that he did not doubt a word from God, as had other figures earlier in 1 Samuel (cough cough, Saul), but rather doubted his own heart and mind. Jonathan was content in knowing his part of the plan without demanding to hear the whole one, taking one step at a time and trusting that the Lord knew everything that was to come. He showed an obedience fueled by his trust when he attacked the more than twenty Philistines stationed there with only his armor-bearer by his side.

We can take Jonathan’s example for how we should respond to our own thoughts, emotions, and plans, and take a step back to evaluate them next to what the Lord says to make sure they are sound before moving forward. When we realize that His plans work together for our good (Romans 8:28), that His plans will come to pass regardless of how much planning and strategizing we do for ourselves (Proverbs 16:9), and that He is working in His own time to keep the promises He has made to His people so that all may come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9), we really have no choice but to give Him the reins and see where He takes us.

Well, I say we have no choice, but what I really mean is that we have no logical choice but to obey Him. We can fight, and push back, and rage against His plans, but at the end of the day, we are only hurting ourselves. When it feels like all we’re doing is getting in our own way by trying to be in control, that’s because we are. Things will run so much more smoothly with Him in control, since He knows not only the future, but our hearts and the hearts of those around us. When we can fully trust in His ability to work things together for our good, the only choice that makes sense is to obey Him when He speaks to us and believe Him when He says that He will see us through to the end.

#trustandobey #trustinggod #christian #christianthoughts #happynewyear #2023 #scripture #bibleapp #1 samuel #jonathan #trust #obedience #christianblog #christianliving #christianity #faith #planner

21 notes · View notes

eddydreaming · 4 months

Text

Death's Game - Review

Hey there! Today I want to talk about my first kdrama of the year… Death’s Game. It is divided into two parts, but I will discuss it as if it’s only one. In my opinion, it was ridiculous to divide it into two parts, if they wanted to release the first 4 episodes first and a couple of weeks later the rest, then fine, but no need to make it have two parts. Enough complaining, let's get into it.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Episodes: 8

Release dates: December 15 2023 and January 5 2024

Main Cast:

Plot:

“He's perennially unemployed, his ex-girlfriend has moved on, and he's just lost all his life savings to a Bitcoin scam. Burdened by societal pressures, Choi Yi Jae decides to take his own life. Insulted by his flippant attitude towards dying, Death comes to punish him with her game: he must experience death over and over again through 13 other lives. But if he can find a way to survive the imminent death coming for these lives, he gets to live out their lifetime. His life was a bust, but what about the lives of others?”

(Source: mydramalist)

REVIEW - NO SPOILERS

The main reason I started watching this drama was the crazy cast it has. Like, how can it have so many famous actors? Again, it’s crazy. I mean, look at this:

Then, I decided to watch the trailer to know what I was getting myself into, and I thought, once again, that it was crazy.

My first impression of the drama, without even having watched a single episode, was huge, so the second it came out there I was. I wasn’t prepared enough though.

The first few episodes of the show were hilarious and entertaining. However, as the story progressed, it became more intense, and before I knew it, I had already finished the first 4 episodes. Okay, it’s alright, now I only have to wait a week to watch the other 4, right? Nope, I had to wait until the 5th of January, because someone decided to torture us watchers by making us wait all that time.

The second part of the drama was even better than the first, particularly the last episode. It was the most thought-provoking thing I've watched in a while.

This drama is not for everyone: its main theme is s**cide and d**th. Of course, it can be hard to watch for many people, but the meaning of life that it tries to convey is worth everything.

REVIEW - SPOILERS

I recommend not to read this part if you haven’t watched the drama yet. I know some people like reading spoilers and that it makes them want to watch something more, but I am gonna give huge spoilers, including the end, that will for sure affect your experience.

Now, can we talk a little bit more about a specific character? The ML’s mother. She made me suffer A LOT. Her thinking that her son had committed s**cide because of her hurt me greatly. Because of that, the last episode was… wow. I swear I cried for a whole 30 minutes.

I truly liked how they got to merge all the stories into one, making all the lives Yi Jae had lived linked. It was thrilling, infuriating and sad, those would be the three words that describe it the best.

One of the most shocking parts was the painter assassin’s death, a death planned by Yi Jae himself. It was horrid, and remembering while writing about it right now gives me the chills. I thought it was unplanned, but he had intended to die in such a way just as a plan for his vengeance. That is outstanding from the ML, so anguished when at the beginning seemed like such a fragile and weak person. That part is when we see the most massive change in the ML, a fundamental character development.

The ending couldn’t have been more perfect, I couldn’t have asked for more really. He decided to live his mother's life, who had planned to s**cide. That way, he survived Death's challenge, and so she gave him another opportunity, an opportunity to get back to his life. He achieved it.

Yi Jae wanted desperately to go back to his life because he could see that the people he had left behind cared for him deeply, and they deserved him to stay alive. The end is with the ML talking with his mother, who had called him right before he jumped from that roof.

¿DO I RECOMMEND WATCHING IT?

Yes, yes and yes once more. It was shocking and I cried a lot, but it was all worth it. It’s been a while since I watched it, but I still recall the intense emotions it evoked.

The content may be too intense for some viewers. However, if you are hesitant and my review has not been enough to persuade you, go and watch the trailer or give the first episode a chance. If it doesn't capture your interest by the end of the first episode, then it may not be to your liking.

#kdrama #kdrama 2024 #kdrama 2023 #death's game #korean drama #kdrama review #drama review

3 notes · View notes

track2hack · 2 years

Text

✨ Pinned post ✨

Last updated 26.02.2024

I’m Emily, 24 and she/they pronouns! I’m a horse girl based in the south island of New Zealand and live with my three horses; Ed, Pixie, and Molly; and my mum’s horse Gem. I’m part of the Belfast Pony Club as part of their adult riders/HorseMasters group after being in the youth section for a year, and also enjoy the endurance/RTT/CTR circuit when time and funds allow! I’ve qualified up to 24kms CTR and hope to go up to placing in the 30kms or completing my first 40km 🤞 I used to be competitive in the show jumping circuit but I don’t enjoy it as much as I used to so mainly it’s just pony club and whatever else I feel like during the year!

I used to work for a harness racing trainer for 2 years and then moved on to working for the local SPCA branch as a farmyard attendant/vet assistant and dabbled in the cats & dogs units, right now I’m taking a mental breather before jumping back into finding my passion 🥰

Previously I retrained and sold project horses and standardbreds off the track as a side hustle, I was also an escort/full service sex worker by choice for 3 years and am an advocate for decriminalisation worldwide.

I have diagnosed BPD type 2 and depression/anxiety issues and my inbox is always open to talk!

—

Dr Kananga - Ed

Ed is my very first heart horse, I got him on 05.06.2021 straight off the track as a 3yo but I’ve known him since he was 2yrs! He’s a 6yo (DOB 10.12.2017) 16.1hh bay standardbred gelding by Live Or Die out of an Elsu mare called Ariana Angel. He raced 5 times as a 3yo pacer and couldn’t beat his own shadow home 🙈 He’s my absolute best man and will be with me til one of us dies, he’s my weekend happy hacker and pony club extraordinaire as well as being a super endurance horse! He likes to live life in the slow lane and doesn’t enjoy big competitions so much but in the past I’ve show jumped him to 55cm and he’s done an eventing round of 45cm. He has the softest puppy dog eyes and golden retriever personality and loves his wonky donkey ear scratched or tickle his chin and he’ll be your best friend 🥺😭💕

My confidence with Ed has gone up and down quite a bit over the last 6 months so he’s gone back on lease to Waimak Horse Treks as part of their trekking string until I feel better again! He’s a lovely wee boy and he’ll always be my heart horse but he enjoys trekking and adventuring in the slow lane much more than pony club or eventing so I’m listening to my head and giving us both the best chance to do what we love - and hopefully we’ll come together again as a riding duo when I get this competition bug out of my skin! 🤭

He’ll never be sold but his lease is long term and will potentially be renewed in January 2025.

—

Ouruhia Gem - Gem

Gem is a 6yo(ish) 15.1hh bay pinto mare by Shebeau (Irish cob x TB x PGP stationbred) and out of the thoroughbred mare Ruby Ashley who is by Raise The Flag. I got her as a foster from the SPCA in early September 2022 when she came to one of the West Coast centres as an inspector seizure/neglect case, was fed up and loved on, and then sent down to my centre on a surgery recommendation for her umbilical hernia (which she didn’t actually end up needing) and I adopted her in December 2022! Both myself and my mum fell in love with her (oops 🙈) and I gifted her to mum as a Xmas present ❤️

I backed her myself in summer 2023 and I’ve really enjoyed playing around with her! She went to a professional schooling yard to get some buttons installed during April 2023 and mum has been having a blast riding her in pony club rallies and forest hacking! She’s a nosey little tart and loves getting her own way but she’s a very sweet and very genuine little horse with a lot of try - in November 2023 she had her first eventing start at 45cm and absolutely smoked the cross country, as well as having her first endurance ride around a 12km lagoon track which she loved! Recently she’s also placed 5th in her first 24km endurance ride but there’s no doubt she’s bred to jump, the little tart loves it!

Currently she’s happily competing in pony club team events at 45-55cm but has a whole lot of scope to go higher! She scores consistently in the low 60%+ in dressage but that’s more because I have no idea what I’m doing, not her lack of talent 🤷‍♀️

—

NZPHS Pixie’s Dream Girl - Pixie

Pixie is a 10yo chestnut pinto miniature horse of unknown breeding and stands approx 36” tall. I got her on 02.09.2023 as an ESA/therapy horse in training but mainly as my little running friend to motivate me to get out of bed every day! I’m aiming to do some endurance with her and potentially some inhand showing too. She’s registered with the New Zealand Pinto Horse Society and has really enjoyed being fussed over and loved on by tween girls as a party pony for my friend’s lesson kids!

Eventually once I get my ass into gear I’ll break her to harness and 🤞hopefully🤞 do some pony scurries with her too!

—

Khant Catch Her - Molly

Molly is a 6yo (DOB 16.11.2017) 16hh dark bay thoroughbred mare by Mongolian Khan out of the Iffraaj mare Jenuwin. I got her on 07.03.2024 as my next pony club mount and so far she’s the sweetest wee girl I’ve ever met! She raced 12 times for only 4 placings and never came better than 3rd, and retired off the track in 2022.

Prior to coming to me Molly’s been showing and won Champion Inhand and Res. Champion Ridden Hack, been to pony club rallies, and done plenty of jumping and beach days.

She’s a lot like Gem in the personality department but lacks some of the zing that madam has (thank god 😅) and definitely wants to be your friend, which is exactly what I was looking for in a horse. She’s a real darling and I’m super excited to keep working with her!

25 notes · View notes

dreaminginthedeepsouth · 1 year

Photo

A Hotter Planet Takes Another Toll on Human Health

A new hypothesis about heat waves, redlining, and kidney stones.

By Bill McKibben

January 19, 2023

Shortly after the New Year, the Washington Post ran a story with a headline that would have seemed inexplicable, even runic, to most readers just a few years ago: “The world’s torrid future is etched in the crippled kidneys of Nepali workers.” But we’re growing used to the idea that the climate crisis, in Naomi Klein’s phrase, “changes everything,” so why not the internal organs of Nepalis? Remarkable reporting by Gerry Shih tells a series of unbearably poignant tales: young Nepali men, struggling to earn a living in their impoverished homeland, head to the Gulf states to do construction work in the searing heat, some without access to sufficient water, some until they collapse. (Other reporting also shows that some Nepalis who work abroad resort to the black market for a transplant that might keep them—and the families that depend on the money they earn—alive.) The piece ends with a man coming back to the care of his sister, who donates her own kidney to save him. The costs of the medical procedures require that he sell his half-built house, and that he give up his life’s dream, which was to get married.

The Post was right: the world’s future is likely encapsulated in this story. The planet is getting steadily hotter, and large swaths of it are moving past the point at which it’s safe to do heavy outside labor in the middle of the day. A 2022 study estimated that six hundred and seventy-seven billion working hours a year were already being lost because it’s too hot to go outside and build things or farm. The researchers assessed the cost at more than two trillion dollars annually, but, of course, it could also be measured in other units—in vital organs, or dreams.

But it’s not just the future that’s illuminated by such studies; it’s the past as well. Unless you’ve been keeping up with your issues of Current Opinion in Nephrology and Hypertension, you may have missed a recent article titled “Redlining has led to increasing rates of nephrolithiasis in minoritized populations: a hypothesis.” I saw it only because one of the medical experts who wrote it—David Goldfarb, who runs the dialysis unit at New York’s V.A. hospital and teaches at New York University’s School of Medicine—is an old family friend. He forwarded it to me, and it fairly blew my mind.

“Nephrolithiasis” is the technical term for the development of kidney stones, those small formations that, as they pass, can cause excruciating pain. (I’ve never had them, but I know more than one man who has said he came away from the experience with a newfound appreciation for what his wife had undergone during labor.) Doctors have long known that higher temperatures lead to more sweat, which reduces urine volumes and thus increases “the saturation of the insoluble salts that cause kidney stones.” During heat waves in the U.S., it takes just three days before emergency-room visits for kidney stones begin to spike.

For reasons that remain unclear, kidney stones have traditionally been more common among white people, but, in recent years, doctors have noted huge increases among Black Americans and a significant rise in Latino communities. The authors of the new article looked to the past for a possible explanation—particularly to the nineteen-thirties, when a federal agency, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, graded all of America’s neighborhoods and deemed some of them “hazardous” for investment, essentially because they were home to large minority communities. This grading system (from A for “best” and B for “still desirable” to C for “declining” and D for “hazardous”) underlay what came to be known as redlining. The grading system led to “chronic disinvestment” in the lower-rated neighborhoods, resulting, over time, in less of everything from parks and green spaces to street trees and air-conditioning in homes.

Now the results can be measured with a thermometer: in Portland, Oregon, the authors report, neighborhoods that were graded A in the nineteen-thirties now “average 8 degrees Fahrenheit lower than the city’s mean temperature, while D-graded neighborhoods average 4.8 Fahrenheit degrees warmer.” Actually, you don’t need a thermometer—that’s a thirteen-degree gap that anyone can feel just by walking across town. No one has carefully studied the incidence of kidney stones among these different neighborhoods, but the authors, in their hypothesis, point to research now under way. Similar work on asthma, another heat-related disease, has shown emergency-room visits are 2.4 times higher in redlined tracts.

Indeed, Goldfarb’s son Ben—an environmental journalist who this year will publish a book called “Crossings,” on the environmental impact of roads—writes that the HOLC grading program produced all kinds of deleterious health effects. In Syracuse, Miami, Minneapolis, and other cities, large parts of neighborhoods that the agency had redlined—and whose residents were mostly Black—were bulldozed to make room for interstate highways. He told me, “Minorities today disproportionately live near the urban freeways that displaced them, and suffer as a result. Air pollution causes asthma and cancer; noise pollution increases the risk of heart disease and stroke; and the physical fragmentation wrought by highways shatters local economies. It’s heartbreaking, though hardly surprising, that disastrous policy decisions made decades ago continue to destroy bodies and communities today.”

It’s true that everyone is going to pay some price as the planet cooks. The authors of the nephrology study predict a likely additional cost to the U.S. health-care system of at least a billion dollars a year. But some people are going to be hit much harder than others because of history. Doing justice in the present requires taking that past seriously—understanding how we ended up where we are, and why we must put those with the least first, as we try to address the future. But we’re at a moment in this country when the idea of historical responsibility is increasingly seen not as logical and obvious but as some kind of invidious political correctness.

In April, 2022, Governor Ron DeSantis, of Florida, signed the Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act, or the Stop WOKE Act. (In introducing the bill, he had said, “In Florida we are taking a stand against the state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory,” adding that “we won’t allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other.”) A preliminary injunction was issued against the act, which includes a dictum against any school teaching that “a person, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish or other forms of psychological distress because of actions, in which the person played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, national origin, or sex.”

But, even if you can silence teachers, legislation can’t muffle the effects of history. On a hot summer’s day in Jacksonville, Florida, where DeSantis was born, the temperature in A neighborhoods is 5.5 degrees below the mean, and it’s 4.4 degrees above the mean in the D-rated communities.

#political cartoon #climate change #Bill McKibben #Nephrology #kidney stones #minority communities #articles #reckonings #redlining

14 notes · View notes